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: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday August 18 2016, @07:41PM
Don't confuse Mr. Self-owned Man with facts and logic; those are for Commie pinkos who hate America and the Free Market (TM).
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @04:40AM
Why should you trouble yourself with facts and logic when you can just take comfort in planning the murders of all who disagree with you?
After all, I don't ever intend to "[tie you] to a stake on the Florida beach as the waves come in [soylentnews.org]". (You might get shot by me while trying to tie someone to said stake, though. What are your feelings on gun control, I wonder?)
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 19 2016, @05:12AM
You're right, that would be unconscionable and immensely cruel. To the sharks. What was I thinking?!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...