Whirlpool (the appliance manufacturer) donated washers and driers to schools and increased attendance.
According to Whirlpool's research, one in five school children report difficulty finding clean clothes to wear to school. It turns out that offering free in-school laundry services to kids with attendance problems increases their attendance.
When compared to factors like economic opportunity, unemployment, and institutional racism, laundry seems pretty inconsequential in the fight to keep kids in school. But while that might be the case for their parents, for a ten-year-old who already has the odds stacked against them, having nothing clean to wear to school could be the deciding factor in whether or not they want to face their classmates that day.
I can remember my grandmother telling me that she thought lunches in schools were a wonderful innovation, because they didn't have anything like that when she was a girl, and many children couldn't come because they wouldn't have lunch. I'm sure back then nobody thought of lunch as something school should provide. Now apparently laundry is the next big innovation.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday August 18 2016, @01:45AM
Well if it's all going to hell anyway, why not mandate a higher minimum wage and implement tariffs and see if we can slow it down a bit?
Perhaps the problem is people objecting to anything that even tries to act on the problem including a purely private and completely un-coerced initiative by Whirlpool.
They do that and already you're grabbing at your wallet with your eyes bugged out in fear.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Arik on Thursday August 18 2016, @02:30AM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday August 18 2016, @02:48AM
Gee, it sounds like we should just commit mass suicide, there being no solution and all. Or we can keep our eyes shut and our hands off the wheel until we crash into the rocks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 18 2016, @02:02PM
I am getting so fed up with your mightier than thou attitude. I am a web developer you insensitive clod, ECMAscript is how I make my living, pay my mortgage, and feed my family. You can just go to hell!