Radio personality Garrison Keillor used to have a standing joke that his fictional Lake Woebegon was where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."
That's now been turned on its head, with over half of American kids in public schools now turning up below average, at least economically, according to a report from the Southern Education Foundation. For the first time ever, 51 percent of American public school children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is the standard measure of low-income status for public schools.
The best off state, according to the report, is New Hampshire, with just 27 percent qualifying for free or reduced lunch. The worst off is Mississippi, where 71 percent qualify.
Some news outlets, including The Washington Post, characterized this as "the majority of students are living in poverty." That headline is wrong, notes Kevin Drum at Mother Jones.
"Fifty-one percent of kids are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches," Drum writes, "which are available only to low-income families. That's an important story. But participation in the federal lunch program is, as she notes, only a rough proxy for poverty: you qualify if you have a family income less than 185 percent of the poverty line. For a family of four this comes to about $44,000, which certainly qualifies as working class or lower middle class, but not poverty stricken."
Drum goes on to unpack the data, pointing out that any quick summary is likely to be deceptive. Still, the trend has educators and poverty experts, including Drum, concerned.
Weve all known this was the trend, that we would get to a majority, but its here sooner rather than later, Michael A. Rebell of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College at Columbia University told The Washington Post. A lot of people at the top are doing much better, but the people at the bottom are not doing better at all. Those are the people who have the most children and send their children to public school.
"The data show poor students spread across the country," the Post reported, "but the highest rates are concentrated in Southern and Western states. In 21 states, at least half the public school children were eligible for free and reduced-price lunches ranging from Mississippi, where more than 70 percent of students were from low-income families, to Illinois, where one of every two students was low-income."
That's now been turned on its head, with over half of American kids in public schools now turning up below average, at least economically, according to a report from the Southern Education Foundation. For the first time ever, 51 percent of American public school children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is the standard measure of low-income status for public schools.
The best off state, according to the report, is New Hampshire, with just 27 percent qualifying for free or reduced lunch. The worst off is Mississippi, where 71 percent qualify.
Some news outlets, including The Washington Post, characterized this as "the majority of students are living in poverty." That headline is wrong, notes Kevin Drum at Mother Jones.
"Fifty-one percent of kids are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches," Drum writes, "which are available only to low-income families. That's an important story. But participation in the federal lunch program is, as she notes, only a rough proxy for poverty: you qualify if you have a family income less than 185 percent of the poverty line. For a family of four this comes to about $44,000, which certainly qualifies as working class or lower middle class, but not poverty stricken."
Drum goes on to unpack the data, pointing out that any quick summary is likely to be deceptive. Still, the trend has educators and poverty experts, including Drum, concerned.
Weve all known this was the trend, that we would get to a majority, but its here sooner rather than later, Michael A. Rebell of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College at Columbia University told The Washington Post. A lot of people at the top are doing much better, but the people at the bottom are not doing better at all. Those are the people who have the most children and send their children to public school.
"The data show poor students spread across the country," the Post reported, "but the highest rates are concentrated in Southern and Western states. In 21 states, at least half the public school children were eligible for free and reduced-price lunches ranging from Mississippi, where more than 70 percent of students were from low-income families, to Illinois, where one of every two students was low-income."
