What All Americans Need to Know About How Poverty Impacts Education

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http://www.alternet.org/education/what-all-americans-need-know-about-how-poverty-impacts-education

***SNIP

Let me offer some data from recent international comparisons to underscore the point: Finland, the highest scoring nation in recent years, has less than 4% of its children in poverty. Even using somewhat out of date statistics from OECD, which sponsors the PISA tests used to bash US schools in comparison with international competitors, US schools with less than 25% of their children in poverty perform as well as an nation, and those with 10% or less of their children in poverty outperform Finland.

Despite the existence of social welfare programs in this country, we still have a problem of concentrated poverty. Yes, we now offer free lunch and in some (but not enough) cases free breakfasts to children from poverty. But that does not feed them on the weekend, or if school is closed because of weather.

Children in poverty are often food insecure. They may be homeless, or not that far from being homeless. Their families lack consistent sources of money. Even if they have access to health insurance through Medicaid or SCHIP, it often does not cover vision, hearing or dental. They live in neighborhoods where violence may make life itself insecure.

I am going to push fair use by quoting five consecutive paragraphs from the Poststory to provide a sense of this. I understand this may be anecdotal, and the plural of anecdote is not data. And yet, any teacher who has taught students in high poverty situations, as I did briefly before my wife was diagnosed with cancer, has experienced what you will encounter in these five paragraphs:

“When they first come in my door in the morning, the first thing I do is an inventory of immediate needs: Did you eat? Are you clean? A big part of my job is making them feel safe,” said Sonya Romero-Smith, a veteran teacher at Lew Wallace Elementary School in Albuquerque. Fourteen of her 18 kindergartners are eligible for free lunches.

[woo me with science]

1. No excuse: "More than half of American schoolchildren now live in poverty."

This is the result of the Third Way/Republican Corporate Agenda.

More than half of American schoolchildren now live in poverty.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026095990

Nothing is more important than making sure that Hillary Clinton or another Third Way predator in a Democrat suit is not shoved down our throats as the Democratic nominee in 2016.

Enough is enough.

[daleanime]

3. +1

[Enthusiast]

5. +1

[AllyCat]

6. Right. I'm So sick of corporatists.

[Android3.14]

2. "I am going to push fair use by quoting five consecutive paragraphs from the Post story"

An Alternet author repackages the work of other journalists?
Well that is pathetic and typical.
I despise Alternet.

[jtuck004]

4. But the Bank$ster/donors report record profits. Can they eat annual reports? n/t

[YarnAddict]

7. LBJ declared War on Poverty

some 50 years ago. We have had a multitude of agencies and programs, legions of socal workers and social scientists; we have thrown trillions of dollars into overcoming poverty, and it appears there has been no change in the percentages of people in poverty.

I have worked in various capacities with people in poverty, many years ago at my county Dept. of Social Services, and more recently, at a Christian charity. It is frustrating, to say the least.

There are women whose expectations are that they will always be in poverty and that their children will always be in poverty. For some reason, these women bounce from one loser of a man to the next. They can see that the guy won't support the kids he has, but gets pregnant anyway, and is always shocked when the guy doesn't hang around, doesn't help with the kid, doesn't do anything to get a job.

I had one woman complain to me that her current boyfriend couldn't get a job because he has facial tattoos. Why did she get involved with a guy whose judgment is that obviously poor? Why didn't she want better for herself?

The charity I worked for provided brand new cribs (as well as other services) for families in need. This was supposed to be on an emergency basis--as in, there is a baby sleeping in a dresser drawer, or in a laundry basket, so we would do what we could to provide a safe place for that child. Everything we had to offer was because of donations by our supporting churches. Resources were not unlimited, but word got around, and we once had a young woman call when she was 9 weeks pregnant to "reserve" her crib.

We had a clothing center, stocked with donated goods, or things picked up at rummage sales. A woman called once and left a message on the machine, detailing the shopping list for her teenaged daughter--she expected us to provide everything her child would need for the school year--coats, shoes, boots, gloves, hats, scarves, dresses, tops, sweaters, pants, jeans, etc., etc., etc., and everything brand new, of course. It was completely unrealistic that we could run a department store with free stuff for everyone, but our clients didn't understand that. I remember the look on that poor girl's face when she saw what we had to offer. She walked away with nothing, rather than take what was available to her in her size.

The expectation was that they needed, and we would provide whatever they needed..

My dh works in the accounting department of a unionized paper mill, and when they were hiring he told me that he would hand deliver any applications from my clients to the H.R. department. No guarantees of employment, but at least a guarentee that the right people would see the applications. I was so excited to know that I could do something to help my clients get jobs that would provide good health insurance, including vision and dental coverage, retirement benefits, and a shot at a middle-class lifestyle. I announced it at our parenting classes. Can you guess how many people took me up on the offer? None. Not a single person was even interested. Kind of destroyed any illusions I may have had that they actually wanted to get out of poverty.

I would really be interested in reading what you might think would solve problems of poverty, because nothing we've tried in the last 50 years seems to have worked so far.