McClatchy Washington Bureau | 10/30/2007 | Study: Most students in South are poor
For the first time in more than 40 years, the majority of children in public schools in the South are poor, according to a report released Tuesday.
In 11 Southern states, including Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, a significant increase in the number of poor children attending public school has sent district officials scurrying for solutions on how to best educate kids who are coming from economically disadvantaged homes.
“The future of the South’s ability to have an educated population is going to depend on how well we can improve these students’ education,” said Steve Suitts, a program coordinator with the Atlanta-based Southern Education Foundation, a non-profit organization that focuses on Southern educational issues and conducted the study.
In places like Memphis, where roughly 80 percent of students come from low-income homes, that has meant adopting models that address teaching children in poverty. In Miami-Dade, where 61 percent of students are on free or reduced-price lunch, that has meant strengthening efforts to improve all students’ math and reading scores and curb dropout rates.
“The reason this presents a profound challenge for us is that low-income students as a group begin school least ready,” Suitts said. “They are the students most likely to drop out of school. They perform at the lowest levels on tests that decide graduation and advancement. They have the least access to college.”
Twenty years ago, Mississippi was the only state in the country with such a high percentage of poor public school students. However, as textile mills shut down in the Carolinas, Appalachian coal mines cut workers and a recession swept the nation, families in the South were especially hard hit, the Southern Education Foundation report found.
Also hitting the South disproportionately were federal cutbacks in anti-poverty programs, the region’s higher rates of underemployment and the increased birthrates of Hispanic and African American children — who are statistically more likely than their white peers to be born into poverty.
Now, a majority of public school students are considered low income in a total of 14 states, including 11 in the South. The South shows tremendous variability, with 84 percent of students considered low-income in Louisiana, 75 percent in Mississippi, 62 percent in Florida, 49 percent in North Carolina, but only 33 percent in Virginia.
According to the report, public schools in the West may face similar problems in the next five to seven years. Already 51 percent of public school children in California and 62 percent of those in New Mexico are considered low income.
All told, the report said, 54 percent of students in Southern states are judged to be poor, a significant increase from the 37 percent so classified in the late 1980s. Nationally, 46 percent of public school students are low-income.
This makes me so sad. The rich have opted out of our public schools, and it has hurt the quality of our education.
I realized sending my kids to public school was a political choice. I’m glad I did, since their value system isn’t all skewed out of reality. They have friends at all income levels, and I’m glad they do.
4 Responses
Makes me think about our situation in Belgium, but luckily is hasn’t yet reached our scholar system.
PS: the stuff is going to be alright, but for now, I’m heading towards Prague, so maybe I’ll send you some Absinth too, so you can become the next Mucha 🙂
Oooh, I love Absinthe! Stupid U.S. still doesn’t allow it to be sold here, but you can get it mail order from overseas. Huh?
There is so much revealed in that map, particularly if you recolor it in different ways. Try listing just the places where the poor are 33% or less. It’s somewhat akin to blue state maps then.
As it is, one can wonder how California and Oregon have reached 50% levels, rare outside the south. Try coloring in every state at 41% or better and that may provide a clue.
It’s not just about private education in some states. Look at the horrendous numbers for Louisiana and Mississippi for example. At roughly 35%, Mississippi is the Blackest state in the country. That doesn’t indicate some flaw in the Blacks, but in the way they’re exploited for cheap labor. Much of the South endures similar economic pain.
Adding 42% and higher to the green states on that map, Illinois, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arizona, Idaho, Alaska, New York, DC and Missouri join the poverty group. What do they share in common? Many immigrants head to most of those. Not necessarily illegal nor Latino, but immigrants in general. The only exception I see in that formulation is that Washington state is not quite as bad. A lot of that is attributable to the higher income influx of Asian immigrants to the region which keeps it 3 points from that threshold.
All I’m suggesting is that there’s a combination of explanations at work. The capital control of the South has passed right-to-work laws (basically, anti-union laws) to continue the exploitation and lack of economic mobility that has afflicted the region since our country’s founding. Where subsequent masses of new residents exist, further exploitation occurs.
It’s part of the reason politicians exploit xenophobia as ‘the problem’ when the real culprits are business critters applying standard business practices under the claim that that’s morally neutral. As long as that demand exists, cheap labor will come. Cut off the Latino immigration and businesses will suffer. Some more existing citizens will pick up some of those jobs, but they’ll still be underpaid and exploited.
So I don’t think private schools are a major part of the problem in such states, though they may be in some communities. Standard business practices, and bigotry remain the biggest factor contributing to poverty, but poverty is not a guarantee of bad schools nor bad students. It can cause problems, but the answer remains reducing poverty, not letting the conservatives frame it as being about vouchers.
Hi Donna,
just got back from Prague. Absinthe is available by mail order 🙂