This week, the Orlando Sentinel has run a series of articles by Denise-Marie Balona on mold problems in schools: see the stories Sunday, Monday, and today for the entire series. It's horrific in places, boosted by counterproductive acts such as shutting down all HVAC in the damp Florida summer.
But I think there's an erroneous assumption about why there hasn't been action on it, at least buried in the last story:
Air-quality experts say one thing that will force educators, who are under immense pressure to boost test scores, to focus on the problem is proof that air quality affects student performance.
This is a state as well as a local responsibility, and I think there's a plausible case to be made that moldy schools are a priori violations of Article 9, Section 1(a) of the constitution:
The education of children is a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida. It is, therefore, a paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders. Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education and for the establishment, maintenance, and operation of institutions of higher learning and other public education programs that the needs of the people may require….
The emphasis on "safe" is mine. The legal question is whether an unsafe school is a violation of the constitution without documentation that it directly interferes with "a high quality education."
There are two lawsuits in process now alleging that the state is violating its constitutional obligations for K-12 schooling. We'll see how quickly either those lawsuits or a new one uses this series as a springboard for a legal claim. I don't know how the state Supreme Court would read the constitutional language, but I've had enough friends teach in sick buildings in local schools that I'd love to see this used as a basis for a suit.