The elephant in the classroom One in five students in poverty |
On Board Online • February 25, 2013
By Paul Heiser
Anyone who has taken a psychology class is probably familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In 1943, while on the faculty of Brooklyn College, psychologist Abraham Maslow published his theory that a person’s basic needs, such as food, clothing and shelter, have to be met before higher order psychological and social needs can be met, including the need for esteem and feelings of accomplishment.
Cohoes Superintendent Robert Libby invoked Maslow’s hierarchy of needs when describing the problem of youth poverty in his Albany County school district.
“We have a large number of kids who come to school unprepared to learn because they are hungry, don’t have clothes to wear, or have unmet health and dental needs,” Libby told On Board. “We need to meet their basic physical needs before we can even [begin to] meet their educational needs.”
More than one in five children statewide – 21.1 percent – live in poverty, according to the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Census Bureau determines youth poverty rates by calculating the percentage of 5- to 17-year-olds who live below the federally designated poverty line. The dollar value of that line varies according to the size of a family. The latest rates are based on data collected in 2011 and released in December 2012.
Youth poverty varies widely depending on the region of the state, according to the census data. It’s concentrated in four areas of the state: the North Country, Mohawk Valley, Southern Tier and New York City. Those areas had average youth poverty rates above the statewide average.
The Census Bureau provided data on 683 New York school districts. The figures show that more than a quarter (27.7 percent) of school districts had youth poverty rates of more than 20 percent; nearly one in eight (12 percent) had youth poverty rates in excess of 25 percent.
The Kiryas Joel Village Union Free School District in Orange County had the highest youth poverty level at 62.5 percent. The median poverty rate in New York schools – the percentage at which half of school districts are above and half below – was 14.3 percent.
One would expect school districts that have high personal income levels and property wealth to have low youth poverty. But this is not always the case. For instance, the Margaretville Central School District in Delaware County has a youth poverty rate of 32.5 and 58 percent of its students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, yet its income and property wealth as measured by a statistic called the Combined Wealth Ratio is 1.8, which is well above the statewide average of 1.0. How can this be?
“It’s an oxymoron of major proportion,” Tony Albanese, the Margaretville superintendent, told On Board.
There is an explanation, though. Albanese calls it “artificial wealth.” Margaretville has a large number of second homeowners whose primary residence is located in New York City or New Jersey, and those homeowners often list Margaretville Central School District on their income tax returns rather than their primary residence. That factor is the primary reason the district’s combined wealth ratio is so high.
“This issue is unique to some small rural districts and one that does not show itself properly on the state aid runs,” said Albanese. “Basically this artificial wealth drives down the state’s responsibility to provide adequate funding to some of the state’s neediest students.”
The Hammondsport Central School District in Steuben County is in a similar predicament. The Census Bureau data shows Hammondsport has a youth poverty rate of about 20 percent yet an above-average Combined Wealth Ratio of 1.52.
“It certainly has presented some challenges,” said Superintendent Kyle Bower. “Many of the truly high wealth homes are owned by seasonal residents who don’t have any true connection to the district. That creates many communication issues as we try to keep the entire district informed as we make our way through these difficult times. Many residents have the perception that we are a small wealthy district with few needs and are not aware of what the true student population looks like.”
The challenges of educating children of poverty are many, educators say.
“Research shows that kids know when and why their parents are stressed – and they bring the stress of home life to school with them,” said Cliff Bird, an elementary school principal in Cohoes. “Kids are resilient, but there comes a point when the stress just becomes too much for them.”
How can schools address this root problem? The answer invariably involves support from community partners.
In Cohoes, where the youth poverty rate is a whopping 28.5 percent, the district identifies families in need of help in cooperation with the local fire department, community center, churches and numerous other organizations. Agencies make a concerted effort to meet these families’ basic needs by mobilizing community resources to provide clothes, food, health services, etc., and to connect them with community resources.
“Youth poverty interferes with learning, plain and simple,” said NYSSBA President Thomas Nespeca. “The better job we do as a state and as individual communities in addressing poverty, the better our schools will be.”