Do you care about poor kids? Personally care? Why should you? Why does a mainstream candidate like John Edwards make eliminating poverty the centerpiece of his presidential campaign? Why does Devilstower care enough about poor kids to say this:
[W]e should not pretend that "a program will take your money." Or "the government will take your money." This is a democracy, and we are the government. I will take your money. I will. Some of that money you worked hard for and want to keep. I will give it to a kid who is hungry. If your concern is that poverty should be addressed by individuals, then there's a simple solution: feed him. If there are no poor children needing food, I won't have to take anything for them.
Why is it so important for us to reduce poverty and give a helping hand to poor kids in America? The simple answer is that those kids are our future -- all our futures.
Cross posted from Left in Alabama.
You and I should care about poor kids because we're heading for an educational trainwreck if we let poverty keep growing in this country. Challen Stephens of the Huntsville Times studied the performance of middle school students on standardized tests and found the correlation between test scores and family income is high -- students from poor families score lower on math and reading tests even if they attend schools in affluent neighborhoods. [See graphic below.] Poverty is an even stronger indicator of poor school performance than race -- surprising in an Old South state like Alabama.
Education is traditionally the path out of poverty, so this strong correlation between poverty and poor school performance is terrible news. Even worse, poverty is growing. A report from the Southern Education Foundation found that in the 2006 school year, 54% of Southern students in public schools are from low income homes. Those poor kids won't grow up to be middle class parents by some kind of miracle. They need outside help.
The cycle of poverty is not just a sound bite. Poor kids don't do as well in school, are more likely to drop out and less likely to go to college. Lacking a good education, they are less likely to get a job with a living wage and health benefits. As adults, they struggle to make ends meet, rely on emergency rooms for health care, are more likely to wind up in prison, pay less taxes and their children are more likely to be poor and miss out on a good education. The circle is complete.
The SEF report says:
If this new majority of students fails in school, an entire state and an entire region will fail simply because there will be inadequate human capital in Southern states to build and sustain good jobs, an enjoyable quality of life, and a well-informed democracy. It is that simple.
A well educated workforce is a tremendous asset when communities set out to attract new employers and industries, which in turn raise the standard of living. The news that our schools are failing poor kids and we have more poor kids than ever, should set off warning lights and sirens across the country, for anyone who is interested in America's future.
The solution? Help a poor kid today, because his or her future is interconnected with yours. And quit voting for candidates who think family values means every man for himself and the poor kids should just suck it up.