A heat wave and a hurricane in the same week. That’s got to be a record.

We’re surprised nobody has used the little hammer to break the glass door on the cliche box to deploy . . . pause for drum roll . . . “The Perfect Storm.”

Do you ever get as tired as we do of hearing those three words?

In any event, Hurricane Earl provided modest drama toward the end of last week as local TV stations geared up for coverage of what was, essentially, a nonevent.

The Androscoggin County Unified Emergency Management Agency didn’t even staff its office over the weekend, as the distant hurricane brought rain and winds while kicking up some menacing surf along the Maine coast.

There was, however, no avoiding the heat wave, which unfortunately struck just as schoolchildren were headed back to the classroom.

Some districts canceled classes. Some moved children into hallways where it was cooler; others emptied classrooms on their second or third floors.

In Lewiston, Superintendent Leon Levesque said schools were using electric fans, and allowing students to take breaks and carry water bottles. “The mail is still being delivered,” he said dryly.

Life went on.

Maine’s top doctor said, however, that the heat wave shows we are unprepared and need more air conditioning in schools, nursing homes and emergency shelters.

“This experience and what we had in July are wake-up calls,” said Dr. Dora Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Climate change will bring more heat waves, she said, not fewer, and half of Maine’s nursing homes have no air conditioning.

Air conditioning in nursing homes? Absolutely. We all know by now that as folks get older they lose some of their ability to tolerate temperature extremes.

Plus, nursing homes are inhabited through the summer and around the clock.

Many of us who do not have air conditioning at home at least have it at work, where we spend the hottest part of the day.

But trying to air condition the state’s school buildings strikes us as a waste of money, unless the state suddenly gets serious about a longer school year or even year-round schooling.

As we have pointed out in this column before, the U.S. trails the rest of the world in learning and in the amount of time students spend in classrooms.

What’s more, research shows that students lose significant progress over the long summer break.

Still, in a state with a Democratic Legislature and strong teacher unions, we are unlikely to ever address this impediment to learning.

So, veto the school air conditioning; too expensive to install and too expensive to run.

With all the problems the state faces, and with the relative rarity of September heat waves, putting AC in schools is not a priority.

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