gotsnowgotslush
skates like Eck
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2007
- Posts
- 25,720
A majority of public school pupils across the United States now live in poverty.
That's true for the first time in 50 years.
All past gains in reducing child poverty, made by the "war on poverty" beginning in the 1960s, now have been reversed, arguably because inflation-adjusted wages for the working poor and the middle class have for much of that time remained stagnant, or have declined.
And it's not just that more kids are living in poverty; it's that among those impoverished kids, a growing number are living in extreme poverty.
Wisconsin, it is true, fairs somewhat better than the norm. Here in the Badger state "only" 41 percent of all public school pupils come from impoverished homes. Still, that's worse than the poverty in nearby Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio.
If it isn't obvious why this is important, the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University explained it in a nutshell:
Early experiences and the environments in which children develop in their earliest years can have lasting impact on later success in school and life. Barriers to children's educational achievement start early, and continue to grow without intervention. Differences in the size of children's vocabulary first appear at 18 months of age, based on whether they were born into a family with high education and income or low education and income. By age 3, children with college-educated parents or primary caregivers had vocabularies 2 to 3 times larger than those whose parents had not completed high school. By the time these children reach school, they are already behind their peers unless they are engaged in a language-rich environment early in life.
Yet you will strain to hear one whit about all this from conservative politicians who seem intent on further privatizing education in Wisconsin.
These are politicians who pretend that poverty does not influence how well many of our children do in school.
*gsgs comment- Why are Replicans gutting the social safety net ?*
President Obama has proposed adding a billion dollars in federal support to state education programs, targeted toward poor kids.
"Republicans are far more focused on creating a parallel, private education system funded with public tax dollars."
"GOP lawmakers think "federal dollars could be more effective if redundant programs were streamlined and more power was given to states."
They don't seem to think assigning tax dollars to subsidizing an entire, parallel, private school system is at at all redundant.
http://www.uppitywis.org/blogarticl...ts-not-about-schools-its-about-poverty-discus
Scott Walker's ruse-
Persistently low-performing public schools would be turned into charter schools and state funding would be cut off for problem private schools, under school accountability legislation.
*gsgs comment- The last that I have heard, is that charter schools for the poor and disadvantaged were immune to being found accountable. The owners took the money and ran, to where they could enjoy an expensive lifestyle, elsewhere. Grifters were running Potemkin schools, and the children were not educated.*
See- Potemkin village
That's true for the first time in 50 years.
All past gains in reducing child poverty, made by the "war on poverty" beginning in the 1960s, now have been reversed, arguably because inflation-adjusted wages for the working poor and the middle class have for much of that time remained stagnant, or have declined.
And it's not just that more kids are living in poverty; it's that among those impoverished kids, a growing number are living in extreme poverty.
Wisconsin, it is true, fairs somewhat better than the norm. Here in the Badger state "only" 41 percent of all public school pupils come from impoverished homes. Still, that's worse than the poverty in nearby Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio.
If it isn't obvious why this is important, the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University explained it in a nutshell:
Early experiences and the environments in which children develop in their earliest years can have lasting impact on later success in school and life. Barriers to children's educational achievement start early, and continue to grow without intervention. Differences in the size of children's vocabulary first appear at 18 months of age, based on whether they were born into a family with high education and income or low education and income. By age 3, children with college-educated parents or primary caregivers had vocabularies 2 to 3 times larger than those whose parents had not completed high school. By the time these children reach school, they are already behind their peers unless they are engaged in a language-rich environment early in life.
Yet you will strain to hear one whit about all this from conservative politicians who seem intent on further privatizing education in Wisconsin.
These are politicians who pretend that poverty does not influence how well many of our children do in school.
*gsgs comment- Why are Replicans gutting the social safety net ?*
President Obama has proposed adding a billion dollars in federal support to state education programs, targeted toward poor kids.
"Republicans are far more focused on creating a parallel, private education system funded with public tax dollars."
"GOP lawmakers think "federal dollars could be more effective if redundant programs were streamlined and more power was given to states."
They don't seem to think assigning tax dollars to subsidizing an entire, parallel, private school system is at at all redundant.
http://www.uppitywis.org/blogarticl...ts-not-about-schools-its-about-poverty-discus
Scott Walker's ruse-
Persistently low-performing public schools would be turned into charter schools and state funding would be cut off for problem private schools, under school accountability legislation.
*gsgs comment- The last that I have heard, is that charter schools for the poor and disadvantaged were immune to being found accountable. The owners took the money and ran, to where they could enjoy an expensive lifestyle, elsewhere. Grifters were running Potemkin schools, and the children were not educated.*
See- Potemkin village
