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TMIQ Today: Clearing the Air in Schools · The Most Important Question

• 0:00
  [on-hold music] Welcome back to The Most Important Question today, where in just a couple minutes or less, we apply the Actually Pro-Life Principles to a news headline and then help you answer the most important question, "What can I do?"
• 0:18
  [on-hold music] In the twenty twenty-four/twenty twenty-five school year, nearly one in five school districts in this country had to cancel school because something in the building failed.
• 0:34
  That sent about two million kids home, maybe yours, maybe even more than once, and it cost three point five million school days. And here's the thing, that's all after we actually did something about it.
• 0:47
  After the pandemic, Congress sent schools one hundred and ninety billion dollars, and districts planned nine point seven billion of it on heating, ventilation, and AC, which is to say the air in the classroom.
• 0:59
  And we spent basically all of it. By this March, ninety-nine cents of every dollar was already out the door, which is not something we get to say very often about these big programs.
• 1:09
  But we skipped a step because we never actually wrote a rule for a federal standard for the air in a classroom. The EPA doesn't require schools to follow its guidance, and it doesn't even require them to check.
• 1:21
  So we bought nine point seven billion dollars of equipment with no rule that says what good enough looks like, so the most important buildings in the country are still failing. Good news, though.
• 1:32
  One state has already written that rule. In California, any school that takes state money for its air system has to install a MERV thirteen filter or better.
• 1:41
  And the better news is that there's a bill in Congress to do the same thing for every public school in the country. It's called the Indoor Air Quality and Healthy Schools Act.
• 1:50
  It's sponsored by Paul Tonko with twenty-three co-sponsors from both parties, and it sat in Brett Guthrie's committee for a year. In May, his committee marked up sixteen bills. This was not one of them.
• 2:02
  So here's what we're gonna do. Right now, email your kid's school and ask what grade of filters in the vents, 'cause I guarantee you nobody else has asked that today. Then join Mom's Clean Air Force.
• 2:12
  And finally, head to whatcanido.earth and tell your rep it's time to finish the job. [on-hold music] Thanks for listening.
• 2:25
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• 2:33
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