Clean and Healthy Schools Are Electric

Years of disruption — by heat waves, wildfires, mudslides and the COVID-19 pandemic — have demonstrated that California’s schools are not equipped to keep students safe and healthy.

Aging HVAC systems cannot filter wildfire smoke or viruses, so schools close and students fall behind. Students in schools without HVAC systems altogether face even worse outcomes. The good news is that we have the technology we need to provide healthy learning environments for California’s kids. Upgrading to all-electric HVAC systems with advanced filtration can deliver enormous educational and health benefits to California’s students and school staff, all while cutting operating costs.

Electric machines like heat pumps — along with the right policies to lower their upfront cost — are a feasible, efficient, and cost-effective solution to prioritize our students and schools. To fully unlock the benefits of electrification, California must ensure that school construction and modernization dollars go toward electric heat pumps, dedicate funding to make electric HVAC systems accessible to schools in low-income or disadvantaged communities, and develop a master plan for healthy, equitable, and climate-resilient school buildings.