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    51% of Children in School Live in Poverty-Shame on USA

    The majority of students in K thru 12 are now living in low income according to a new report from the Southern Education Foundation. The data was collected by the NCES (National Center of Education Statistics.) 

     http://www.southerneducation.org/Our-Strategies/Research-and-Publications/New-Majority-Diverse-Majority-Report-Series/A-New-Majority-2015-Update-Low-Income-Students-Now 

     This has been building up for years. In 1989, it was less then 32%. Then in 2000, it reached 38%. Now, 51% of children are at a disadvantage. We can no longer ignore the reality of this for the future of our economy and society as a whole. Evie Blade a staff writer for Education Weekly in her article "New Milestone: Majority of Public School Students Now Considered Low Income" writes:

    Schools have, of course, been confronted by the challenges of poverty for years, but crossing the majority threshold certainly creates a powerful conversation point in debates on the local, state, and federal levels about issues ranging from equity and accountability to student supports.

    "That deepening poverty likely will complicate already fraught political discussions on how to educate American students, as prior research has shown students are significantly more at risk academically in schools with 40 percent or higher concentrations of poverty," Education Week wrote when it covered growing trends of poverty in 2013.

     Brookings reported in July, 2014  

    The economically turbulent 2000s have redrawn America’s geography of poverty in more ways than one. After two downturns and subsequent recoveries that failed to reach down the economic ladder, the number of people living below the federal poverty line ($23,492 for a family of four in 2012) remains stubbornly stuck at record levels. Today, more of those residents live in suburbs than in big cities or rural communities, a significant shift compared to 2000, when the urban poor still outnumbered suburban residents living in poverty.

    Brookings continue to point out:

     The challenges of poor neighborhoods—including worse health outcomes, higher crime rates, failing schools, and fewer job opportunities—make it that much harder for individuals and families to escape poverty and often perpetuate and entrench poverty across generations.2 These factors affect not only the residents and communities touched by concentrated disadvantage, but also the regions they inhabit and the ability of those metro areas to grow in inclusive and sustainable ways.

    If you scroll down in this report there is an interactive map that you can get the statistics in an area near you.  

     http://www.brookings.edu/research/interactives/2014/concentrated-poverty#/M10420

    Between 2000 and 2012 in distressed neighborhoods grew by 5 million people entering into poverty. This group is young families with children. Poverty has become more concentrated in these communities. The highest rates of children in poverty is in the south and south west of the country with Mississippi having the highest at 71%. This chart shows children poverty in all the states.

    http://www.southerneducation.org/getattachment/5c53bd26-88c8-4ae2-b9ed-37a699956b1a/A-New-Majority-2015-Update-Low-Income-Students-Now.aspx

    New York Times reports today:

    The number of children eligible for subsidized lunches has probably increased in part because the federal Agriculture Department now allows schools with a majority of low-income students to offer free lunches to all students, regardless of whether they qualify on an individual basis or not.

    Still, it is clear that public schools are educating higher numbers of low-income children, and the trend has been going on for much longer than the period that started with the most recent recession.

     http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/17/us/school-poverty-study-southern-education-foundation.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

    Washington Post

    “We’ve all known this was the trend, that we would get to a majority, but it’s here sooner rather than later,” said Michael A. Rebell of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College at Columbia University, noting that the poverty rate has been increasing even as the economy has improved. “A lot of people at the top are doing much better, but the people at the bottom are not doing better at all. Those are the people who have the most children and send their children to public school.”

     http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/majority-of-us-public-school-students-are-in-poverty/2015/01/15/df7171d0-9ce9-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html

    It is a real struggle for families with limited income to give their children the support they need in school.  These kids enter school with out everything they need.  There isn't money for music lessons or even the fees to pay for the school rent of a instrument.  Many middle schools and high schools post homework and reading materials on the internet instead of sending home a book. It is a struggle to maintain a internet connection when you have to depend on food banks and food stamps to feed the family.  This puts these kids at a disadvantage even if they have a laptop because they may not be able to get to a place that has open wifi.

    Finding money to purchase supplies for required science and history fairs can leave the child at a disadvantage. I just recently went through this and ended up spending $70 on materials for a display board which was 50% of the child's grade for the semester. He told me that there were children that did not make one. I had to put time into it to help create the display. I am retired and can spend the time but what if I had been working 2 low paying jobs. He would not been able to put it together.  Now he needs black shoes and a outfit for the orchestra by February. He is in a concert. He is ready for a new pair of shoes so he is going to have to settle for black ones because I can't buy 2 pairs. 

    On top of this, if the child has been successful enough to complete high school and attend college, they face the burden of a large loan that is unfair and continues to put them at a disadvantage as an adult.  

    Why are we allowing our government to slash funding to schools?  Our schools need more funding to meet these challenges to serve these kids. We should be ashamed of our selves to put tax breaks before our kids future.  We have to invest in human resources for our society's future.  

    Comments

    A heartbreaking statistic.  What it tells me is that we have to work even harder to get those kids educated.  They have to have every chance available to them and if we can't do that we've failed as a country that supposedly believes in democracy and equality.

    We can't teach to the test when these kids need so much more.  They need language skills and exposure to art, literature and music.  They need experiences outside the classroom that will open their eyes to the possibilities. 

    And they need to know they're worth whatever we have to do to get them to where they need to be.


    Thanks for your good comment.  

    Hillary Clinton wrote a book It Takes a Village to Raise a Child.   I sure hope she dust that off and push those ideas again.  I first heard about her as "a child advocate."  In her early years she fought for children rights in the welfare system.  This was before Bill was Governor.  I know she cares about kids and right now we need that. 

    We have a media vacuum that is out of touch with society.  Think tanks come up with nonsense so they can sell it to their benefactors, who are selfish, and wants out of paying their way. The village of serious people  buy into the nonsense because they are lazy and have big egos, so they don't want to mingle with the unwashed. They feed the nonsense into the media loop and no one has a clue what is going on out side the village because the village recovered and are doing well. Wealthy politicians are part of that village. Their dog whistles are most important to them because it gets them votes from scared people.  

    Everything that comes out of the GOP sucks. Republicans have no firm grasp on what is needed and how bad their ideology has failed. The new poverty is hidden in the suburbs and it has not gone away. That ghetto is still growing and Republican voters don't know it is right next door.  


    It's both heartbreaking and mindbreaking.  Kids who start off in poverty, in a society with low economic class mobility, are going to wind up poor adults with poor children of their own.  There will be economic consequences.  Our economic growth is based on mass affluence but we're headed towards mass poverty.

    You're absolutely right, we need to divert massive federal resources into education, everywhere. As you say, kids come from families where they can't afford to even rent an instrument to join the school band.  Nobody should have to pay for that.  The Feds should cover it.  All kids should have the option of breakfast and lunch, all paid for.  Nutrition is essential for learning.  This stuff shouldn't even be up for debate.

    A majority of kids in poverty.  It was a social failure at 20%.  51% is well past crisis.


    It goes on because only 20% of the population in this country has children in school. Young families are being shut out of the recovery.  There is a whole generation that has gone to school that has not gotten the education they needed because of the conservative mind set of being selfish. Racism is being used to promote selfishness as a virtue. 

    We are asking our parents to foot a big portion of the cost of education.  Tablets, laptops and internet service is not cheep. That has left me scrambling coming up with sources this fall. This family had to come up with 3 tablets, 1 laptop, card stock, printer ink and paper. I have even had to spend $40 on a years subscription for internet web site for music home work. Like you said the school should be paying for the tools needed for homework. Or at least offering them at wholesale prices.  It is morally wrong to do educations as a profit only process. 

     


    Not to mention that when you bring this up, you wind up being told that public education is "free."  It isn't. We all pay for it.  We generally start paying for it before we even have kids.  On the federal and local levels, we've all paid.  The problem is that our tax dollars have been diverted to less useful purpose. Education has a return on investment that the Pentagon doesn't. But we send our money to the Pentagon anyway.  Our only problem is that our priorities are warped.


    The public has been told that educators are wasteful with the money and are of poor quality. That the free market can do it better.  The GOP came up with this to be appealing to the segregationists in the south.  .They wanted to move money into private schools that did not have minorities.  That charter schools really promote segregation and in practice that is what is happening.  Charter schools actually hurt public educations financially because it pulls dollars out of the system.. 

     


    A small bit of research has reinforced my experience that students, who have more outstanding debt than all US credit card debt by hundreds of billions, are ripped off for required textbooks.

    Basic college physics has not changed since the 1940's. Force, power, acceleration, basics of electricity etc. Good enough for Oppenheimer and the guys who built the atomic bomb in their Freshman year at college. Probably good enough for Physics 101 today.

    NO! that is boring old physics. You could sell the books for practically nothing! (Shocker-They might even be better written than the ones today.)

    Solution - The education/publishing complex comes out with new texts every few years to make money, lots of money.

    The colleges and schools make money off the books too in the bookstores.  The price can be a hundred or 2 hundred dollars for one book.

    Not so in Europe. One example:

    US - University Physics with Modern Physics - price $225.85 (the 'modern' stuff includes how ATM cards and touch screens work...big f* deal)

    France - Collège Physiques - prices start at 5 euros. Highest price 20 euros.


    My kids rent their books from a on line  source or buy e-books.  They also have sources directly from China. After the first semester they didn't buy from the college. They use Paypal account for China. Some elective classes are avoided because of the cost of the books. They haven't borrowed any money for school so they are careful about the cost. 

    You are right about the books and it has been like that for a long time. It is a system that needs to be changed.  Making education affordable should be top priority not profit making.  They need to pay the instructors better also.  


    This is unacceptable.  What we have been doing is giving us the results we have today.

    It is time for a revolution of Massive Participation!  


    I just read two (out of ten?) blog sites discussing this issue.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/most-educated-states-neighborhoods-findthebest_n_4922412.html

    This link is seven months late but I read some other links that name Mississippi (what a strange thing that is) and Arkansas and all the rest of the South, as being lacking in SAT scores and holy cow am I now amazed.

    The curriculums and the monies available to the student just astound me.

    I am going to get a new notebook (which I purchase every two years or so) to help me get a grasp upon what I am doing.

    But kids need PC's and proper software and proper help from their parents and....

    And now....

    Half of our children are in poverty?

    I am unable to get to the other links right now but...

    Minnesota will prevail.

    NY will prevail along with California.

    Texas will continue to sell some old myths to their chidlren and eventually fail.

    Ignorance and funding is the key.

    But in the  end, like repubs  like to underline:

    Parents are of import.

    Parents must vote, parents must appear at PTA, parents must monitor the homework....

    But STATES MUST PROVIDE THE PENCILS AND THE PAPER AND THE PC ACCESSIBILITY OR WE ARE  ALL  DONE! 

    I  was going to go into another rant. but who needs it?

    To have gone through what you go through every day, no one on FOX will ever hear.

    GOOD JOB.

    IN THE END YOUR CHILDREN SHALL SURVIVE JUST FINE!

    Oh and I had this thought.

    A kid can get into Community College without any funds, like my son ($4,500) in debt when he matriculated and then go on to bigger and better things later on in order to get his BA and Our Prez is hoping to help those peeps like my son.

    Obama is suggesting that two years of tech school or community college can help. Without the debt.

    I am done.

    Great blog!

     


    Thank you,

    Oh, these little tablets were like i-pads.  They hook up to wifi and have little keyboards. The kids can now use them as e-readers.  I do wish they could have been the paper kind. They are really neat but my poor little savings account is suffering.  I get up every morning and choose to make the best of it.  The emergency fund will recover. 


    Supplying a better education for these children will do little to change their future situation. They are the Great Recession Generation and are part of the surplus population just as their parents are. They will serve to siphon more profits as they enter the Bill Gates private charter school system but their future in the low-pay service industries that end-stage Capitalism offers is bleak.

    Even many of those who beat the odds and get a university education will end up in a similar situation, plus a huge debt, as others due to austerity policies and other neoliberal manipulations. They will also be competing with their own parents for these marginal jobs because they can't retire and pay their bills.

    This is Class Warfare and guess who won?


    No, by all means go ahead;

    I just bet a thousand bucks not long ago;

    I MEAN, WHO WON?

    Neo liberals for chrissakes.

    I am an OLD LIBERAL.

    hahahahaha

    There is a point here.

    I knew folks who went to community college, worked hard and received their AA degree and were accepted at the local U.

    And I also believe, that a hard working student could receive 90% of his or her education on the web for those first two years. A couple days a week in front of a TA and all would be well.

    There are many ways of looking into these educational issues.

    Without even getting mad!

    Momoe is living this mess.

    My kids are grown they did just fine.

    We must trust in folks like Momoe and my kids.

    I HAVE HOPE.

    There is no reason, no reason at all for a middle class youngster to spend a hundred grand attempting to achieve a BA.

    Oh, and in answer to your last question:

    I KNOW WHO WON.

    But I am more interested in the question:

    WHO WILL WIN? OR WHO CAN WIN?

    To finish:

    IT IS FUN BEING A COMMIE, TRY IT SOMETIME!

    After all, there  is no wall anymore.


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