Surge in Homeless Pupils Strains Schools

[kpete]

Source: New York Times

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — In the small trailer her family rented over the summer, 9-year-old Charity Crowell picked out the green and purple outfit she would wear on the first day of school. She vowed to try harder and bring her grades back up from the C’s she got last spring — a dismal semester when her parents lost their jobs and car and the family was evicted and migrated through friends’ houses and a motel.

Charity is one child in a national surge of homeless schoolchildren that is driven by relentless unemployment and foreclosures. The rise, to more than one million students without stable housing by last spring, has tested budget-battered school districts as they try to carry out their responsibilities — and the federal mandate — to salvage education for children whose lives are filled with insecurity and turmoil.

The instability can be ruinous to schooling, educators say, adding multiple moves and lost class time to the inherent distress of homelessness. And so in accord with federal law, the Buncombe County district, where Charity attends, provides special bus service to shelters, motels, doubled-up houses, trailer parks and RV campgrounds to help children stay in their familiar schools as the families move about.

Still, Charity said of her last semester, “I couldn’t go to sleep, I was worried about all the stuff,” and she often nodded off in class.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/education/06homeless.html?_r=2

[bobshin]

1. Good movie from 2004 the dealt with a very similar subject...

highly recommended...
Evergreen (www.evergreenthemovie.com/)

[defendandprotect]

2. Have we heard one word from Dems about the homeless...our impoverished children!!????

Welcome to the GOP's "third world America" . . . !!

They've been working on this for decades!

[slay]

4. Argh I know!

The Dems are turning out to be corporate lackeys just like the Repubs - just slightly less bad! I know the GOP is to blame, but we need real, strong opposition - where is it?! :mad:

[Ghost Dog]

7. Somewhere like here?

http://wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/reso-m21.shtml

[defendandprotect]

8. Nothing to argue with there . . . capitalism is finished, if everyone understands

what has just happened -- again.

Unregulated capitalism is merely organized crime --

:)

[Ghost Dog]

12. Yeah...

Question seems to be, who's going to do the regulating?





I think we all know the answer to that, history tells.



edit: Thanks for reading.

[defendandprotect]

18. Doesn't look like we have . . .

another FDR in the White House . . .

[slay]

16. I agree

capitalism has eaten itself - i'm all for socialism! i wonder if that's why foxnews and glenn beck yell about it all the time - even though we aren't even CLOSE to there (i wish) - cause socialism makes the most sense for the future. nice article - thnx.

[jeffbr]

3. One million homeless school children in the most powerful richest country on earth

What's wrong with this picture?

[Posteritatis]

14. The list of what's *right* with that picture would be much shorter. (nt)

[Libertas1776]

5. America: The Amazing Race to the Bottom

Lets give a hand to that Grand Ol' Party and their DINO lackeys.

[defendandprotect]

9. Grand Old Patriarchy . . . and it's highly successful propaganda . . .

[Joe the Liberal]

6. America may be the "Wealthiest nation on earth"....

but it doesn't matter, all that wealth is kept by few people so what's the point of being a wealthy nation if it's all kept at the top? The US is the richest country on earth just because a few elites choose to call this place home.

[defendandprotect]

10. Capitalism is about transferring the wealth and resources of EVERY nation to the few . . .

[Deja Q]

13. That is what the concept has been morphed into. It's not capitalism anymore...

[defendandprotect]

17. Capitalism was invented by the Vatican to succeed Feudalism . . .

when it was no longer sufficient to run their Papal States.

It is a ridiculous "King-of-the-Hill" system -- always intended to transfer

wealth from the many to the few.

You may be referring to the past decades of the New Deal and regulation of

capitalism which was overturned in the fairly recent past.

Unregulated capitalism is merely organized crime.

[Dinger]

11. Where Do These Kids Fit In The Charter School Picture?

Or don't they?

[MichiganVote]

15. They don't actually. Under McKinney Vento Act all public schools are required to

continue to provide a spot for kids who become homeless IF its feasible. Since most homeless shelters are removed from Charter schools and Charter schools do not provide transportation, the kids usually move on to the nearest traditional public school that does provide transportation. This disrupts their education.

[Le Taz Hot]

19. I just delivered food to a family

with 3 kids (including an infant) living in a motel. He got laid off and is on unemployment. They were living at his mother's rented house for awhile but the mother fell ill, is now in a nursing home and the family couldn't pay the rent so they had no other choice but to move to a motel. Add to that the mother of the 3 kids had to go into the hospital to get a shunt replaced in her head. Complications with staff infection followed which extended her stay in the hospital. I came in and, well, if you can imagine 5 people living in a one-room motel . . . They don't have a car (couldn't pay the registration fee so it got impounded) so they have to walk everywhere which means they have limited access to food. Lots of water & chips and McDonalds. Just a little glimpse into the homeless life. I lived that life 40 years ago when I was growing up and I'm telling you, that experience never ever leaves you.