Thursday, January 10, 2008

One third?

One out of three school-age children in Milwaukee lived with a family in poverty in 2005, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Wednesday.

That's a large number, putting us sixth in the nation in large school districts. And yet, from the rhetoric that flies around this city, I honestly thought it was closer to 75-80%...e.g., almost everyone except the east side.

As always, the solution is more taxes, er, "resolving school-funding issues." It's unclear to me how throwing more money into health insurance for school board members and teachers' union dues and such is going to provide stable homes for kids.

But that's why I press buttons for a living.

2 comments:

Amy said...

I'd be interested to know some follow-up statistics:

How many of those children come from single-parent (usually single-mother) homes?

How many of those children have or are siblings to other children in the system - and how many of these children have both the same mother and father?

What is the (average) highest level of education the parents have received?

What is are the types of jobs these mothers/parents have?

What are the criminal records of said parents?

It's not enough to say 1/3 of the kids are living in poverty, then argue poverty is the cause of poor education, criminality, and employment.

It's the other way around.

HeatherRadish said...

Good questions. I'm sure they're not keeping track.

I thought about this a lot today; you know, if they'd organize a group of interested volunteers to help out--say, show up with some quarters and some detergent and help out the girl who really wants to go to school but doesn't have laundry facilities available--I've got nothing better to do with my evenings.

But the people who could organize those groups don't care about practical stuff; they just want my cash so they can blow it on something else.