Map: How student poverty has increased since the Great Recession
Not only are more American children poor today than before the Great Recession, but poor kids are increasingly clustered with poor classmates at school, according to an analysis from the nonprofit EdBuild.
Between 2006 and 2013, the number of students in high-poverty school districts — in which more than 20 percent of children live below the federal poverty line — increased from 15.9 million to 24 million, according to EdBuild. That means nearly half of the nation’s 50 million public school students go to class with large numbers of peers who are growing up with poverty and all its difficulties.
The number of children going to class in school districts with even greater student poverty — higher than 40 percent — also increased, from about 1 percent to 4 percent of the national student population.
Such high-poverty districts need more money to help address the issues that their students bring to school, including hunger, homelessness and higher risks for mental health challenges, said Rebecca Sibilia, founder and CEO of EdBuild, a new group that advocates for more equitable school funding systems.
“What we’re seeing is a huge spreading of poverty, but potentially more problematic is a deepening of poverty,” said Sibilia, who has worked at StudentsFirst, the lobbying group founded by former D.C. school chancellor Michelle Rhee. “The needs of high-poverty districts are just compounded compared to a smattering of low-income students that may exist in middle-income areas.”
EdBuild produced an interactive map that shows how poverty levels have changed in each of the nation’s 14,000 school districts. Here’s what poverty levels looked like in 2006:
And in 2013:
As the map makes clear, the Midwest and the South have experienced the most dramatic increase in student poverty. The South enrolls about 35 percent of the nation’s students but accounts for 60 percent of all students Map: How student poverty has increased since the Great Recession - The Washington Post:
