Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

The Impact of Poverty on Education

  • By Deb Moore
  • 05/01/11
The talk is all about the need for a good education. Not just a high school education, but also an education beyond high school. The first baby boomers turn 65 this year (2011), meaning we will lose about 46M skilled workers as these boomers retire through the next 20 years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2020 there will be a 22 percent increase in the number of jobs that require education beyond high school. These are two very good reasons for students to pursue an education and for states to provide adequate funding. The unfortunate news is that in too many cases, the number of students who graduate with at least a high school diploma is declining.

Did you know that one in six public school students attends a high-poverty school — defined as a school where 76 to 100 percent of the student enrollment is eligible for free or reduced-price meals? Did you know that students who attend high-poverty schools perform persistently lower in math and reading achievement and are less likely to attend four-year colleges when compared to their peers in low-poverty schools? Only about 68 percent of 12th-graders in high-poverty schools graduated with a diploma. Even more disheartening is the fact that since 1999-2000, the average percentage of seniors in high-poverty schools who graduated with a diploma has declined by 18 percentage points, from 86 to 68 percent.

It is easy to complain about a lack of funding for schools or a lack of quality in our education system. It is much harder to do anything about the problem. There is no question that having a good education has a profound and positive impact on the individual student, the community, the labor market, the economy, and the country. Not having an adequate education increases unemployment rates and decreases earning potential, meaning a larger percentage of our population falls into the high-poverty category — a category in which the drop-out rate is increasing. It is like being caught on a hamster wheel. Too much blame is being put on a “poor public education system” when so many of the problems are socioeconomic in nature. To “fix” education is going to take a lot more than just funding for schools.

Featured

  • Doerr School of Sustainability Accelerator

    From Concrete Warehouse to Innovation Hub: Accelerating Sustainability at Stanford

    The transformation of a once windowless, concrete publishing warehouse into a sun-drenched center for global innovation began with a single, fundamental challenge: how to turn an industrial storage shell into a space built for human connection.

  • Dallas ISD Voters Approve $6.2B Bond Package

    Dallas ISD voters have approved a record-setting $6.2-billion bond package that district leaders say will modernize aging campuses, eliminate portable classrooms and reshape learning environments across one of the nation’s largest school systems.

  • Tennessee Middle School Completes Health, Life Safety Renovations

    The Giles County Board of Education in Pulaski, Tenn., recently announced that a series of renovation projects has been completed at Bridgeforth Middle School, according to a news release. The district partnered with Wold Architects & Engineers and Brindley Construction to modernize building systems at one of the district’s oldest schools.

  • Northeastern University Breaks Ground on New Housing Community

    Northeastern University recently announced the groundbreaking of a new student housing community on its campus in Boston, Mass., according to a news release. The university is partnering with American Campus Communities (ACC) for development of the project, which will have the capacity for 1,200 students and has a scheduled completion date of fall 2028.