"Black students are losing classrooms, homes, and support systems after climate events."
"Adrinda Kelly watched from New York as Hurricane Katrina swallowed her hometown of New Orleans in 2005. Floodwaters rose, neighborhoods disappeared underwater, and she felt a familiar ache deepen.
Her family was safe, but devastation quickly compounded a painful realization: Black children were portrayed as disposable, and New Orleans’ education system was almost completely privatized. Black students’ test scores faltered.
Almost two decades later and nearly 2,000 miles away, similar echoes reverberated in Altadena, California, as wildfires swept through Los Angeles County in January. Flames consumed buildings and homes, but also something less tangible: the future of hundreds of thousands of students. More than 700,000 California children, mainly Black and Latino, missed school, some for weeks, and many still haven’t fully returned. Adding injury to insult, more than 100 local teachers were laid off in the month after the blaze.
Just as Katrina’s chaos reshaped New Orleans, wildfires in Altadena underscore how climate disasters deepen educational inequities, disproportionately harming students already grappling with systemic neglect. With every disaster, students lose not just classroom hours, but opportunities, confidence, and stability. In a nation increasingly battered by severe weather, the question Kelly first grappled with after Katrina now confronts communities nationwide: Will these disasters become catalysts for deeper injustice, or opportunities for lasting change?"
Adam Mahoney reports for Capital B March 28, 2025.
SEE ALSO:
"As EPA Pulls Back, Schoolchildren Could Face The Steepest Risks" (Floodlight)
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