A few things people should know about poverty and education
1. It is the number one quantifiable measure when looking at how children do in school. Children who live in poverty as a group do a lot worse than children who don’t.
2. Over a fifth of our children live in poverty and another fifth just above it.
3. Corporate education reformers deny and overlook poverty but they profit off it at the same time. Just look where most of the nations charter schools are and which children they serve.
4. The nations one-size fits all system poorly serves children who live in poverty. Six hours a day and 9 months of the year may be enough time for the kids in the suburbs and the affluent neighborhoods but it’s not enough time for the kids on the wrong side of the tracks. Public schools and their teachers aren’t failing these kids, the system is.
5. Finally we don’t have the kids we wish we had, we have the ones we do and we better start meeting the kids in poverty where they are not where we wish they were. If we don’t things are just going to get worse.
Children in poverty begin school seriously deficient in terms of vocabulary, attitudes toward school/learning, ability to focus and other dispositions that are necessary to succeed in school.
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