by Erica Mauter • I expressed concern this morning that perhaps it would have been prudent to close schools at least one day this week, on account of the fact that there are little kids standing outside in this ridiculous cold waiting for the bus.
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Got some interesting tweets back, so I thought I’d share.
First, I learned that Independent School District 622 (North Saint Paul, Maplewood, Oakdale) was the only ISD in the Twin Cities metro to close schools today. There are also a handful of private and charter schools closed and some extra activities have been canceled. If that’s all that’s closed today, on the coldest day of the week, it’s fair to say there have been next to no school closures due to the extremely cold temperatures.
Secondly, Kassie made some excellent points as to why it’s not actually prudent to close schools because of the cold.
closing school info is hard to get to non-English speakers. Kids will wait outside in cold for bus to never come. #
also, it is a real burden for working parents to find day care for small children on short notice. don’t want 5 year olds at home #
finally, school is warm, home isn’t always warm. And many kids get only meals of the day at school. MPLS never calls off school. #
Unsurprisingly, those reasons are all related to the disenfranchisement of poor and immigrant populations.
Care to disagree with Kassie?
Originally published 1/15/09
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