Jalen Hurts donates $200K to 10 Philadelphia school district schools for air conditioning units
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Football season is months away, but Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts did something cool this week by making a donation that will help ensure Philly kids can learn in cool and safe environments.
Hurts on Friday donated $200,000 to the School District of Philadelphia to purchase air conditioning units for 10 schools.
"It's very heartwarming," the Eagles quarterback said.
Hurts spent the day with students and staff at Edward Gideon School in Brewerytown.
It's one of 10 schools in the Philadelphia school district to receive a donation. A gift of more than 300 air conditioners.
"The least that I can do is do what I'm doing now," Hurts said. "This is my duty."
The list of schools includes Clara Barton, Gloria Casarez, Castor Gardens, D. Newlin Fell, Thomas Finletter, Fitler Academics Plus, Benjamin Franklin/Science Leadership Academy, Abram Jenks and T. Roosevelt.
"These are all just an opportunity for me to put in the progress of our tomorrow in our youth today and help get them to where they want to be," Hurts said.
"This is a win for the School District of Philadelphia and we can't say enough — Thank you Mr. Jalen Hurts," Superintendent Tony Watlington Sr. said.
District schools said more than 80 schools had to dismiss early in the past because of extreme heat, and heat waves are getting more frequent.
"The gift that Mr. Hurts bestowed upon not just my school, but the other nine schools will make a huge difference in the classroom," Shauneille Taylor, Edward Gideon's principal, said.
Hot classrooms make it harder for kids to learn and can result in lower test scores, research shows. One report from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that without air conditioning, "each 1-degree increase in average school year temperature is associated with a 1% decline in the amount learned during the school year."
That's what it's all about for Hurts — making a difference. He wants to donate even more air conditioners to other schools in the future.
"Just giving them proper resources and putting them in the right environment like anything, like all of us in anything that we do, it always helps us to have the extra push to be successful," he said.
Hurts said this is just the beginning of the work his foundation plans to do in the community as he hopes to try and have a bigger impact off the field than he does on it.