Maryland panel lifts ban on portable air-conditioners for schools

Maryland’s Board of Public Works on Wednesday lifted a ban on using the state’s school-renovation funds to purchase window air-conditioning units for classrooms.
The rule was designed to promote energy efficiency, but it came under scrutiny at the start of the school year when children and teachers in Baltimore County found themselves sweltering in classrooms. About one-third of the jurisdiction’s schools had no cooling units.
Comptroller Peter Franchot (D), one of three members of the board, described the situation as “our Flint,” referring to problems with lead-tainted drinking water in that Michigan city. He said students, teachers and school employees were subjected to “conditions that few of us would even expose our animals to.”...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/an-annual--and-much-derided--annapolis-tradition-the-begathon/2016/01/27/e711897c-c482-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html