Majority of U.S. public school students are in poverty

For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of public school students across the country are considered “low-income”, according to a new study by the Southern Education Foundation. While poor children are spread across the country, concentrations are highest in the South and in the West. 

The Southern Education Foundation reports that 51 percent of students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in the 2012-2013 school year were eligible for the federal program that provides free and reduced-price lunches. The lunch program is a rough proxy for poverty, but the explosion in the number of needy children in the nation’s public classrooms is a recent phenomenon that has been gaining attention among educators, public officials and researchers. 

“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. 

She helps them clean up with bathroom wipes and toothbrushes, and she stocks a drawer with clean socks, underwear, pants and shoes. 

“We have to think about how to give these kids a meaningful education,” he said. “We have to give them quality teachers, small class sizes, up-to-date equipment. But in addition, if we’re serious, we have to do things that overcome the damages­ of poverty. We have to meet their health needs, their mental health needs, after-school programs, summer programs, parent engagement, early-childhood services. These are the so-called wraparound services. Some people think of them as add-ons. They’re not. They’re imperative.”

DYI Comment:  Education and poverty and their controversial solutions have been with us since at least the 1960's.  One area which deals with the expanding income inequality is shown by this chart below.

1971 Tricky Dick, or for you younger folks President Richard Nixon closed the gold window for international convertibility dollars to gold.  Almost immediately the bottom 90% began their journey of lower standards of living only having a brief respite during the roaring 90's.  The top 1% after a brief pause during the 1970's went almost vertical except for the stock crashes of 1987, 2000, 2007. This chart does not show the bottom 10% or 20% who's income has fallen off a cliff.  Without gold as a standard politicians will allow budget deficits to explode.


This admission of credit ends up into the hands of the top 10% (especially the 1%) first, slowing filtering through our different strata's until the poor only receive inflated currency that has reduce their standard of living.  What little disposable income is available to save it becomes a worthless endeavor with inflation greater than their return.

To be sure there are myriad of other problems not related to currency debasement.  This however is so huge that hopefully the left and right could agree upon.

DYI