Poverty -- Education

Education makes a difference in lifting families out of poverty. Just consider that 55 percent of children in New York state whose parents do not have a high school degree live in poor families; only 10 percent of children whose parents have at least some college live in poor families. Yet low-income children aren’t getting the full advantages of educational opportunities. For instance, high-school dropout rates in 2004 were four times higher for students from low-income families than those in high-income families. Students with excessive absences due to chaotic home lives and students from families that move several times a year to avoid evictions are having their schooling continuously disrupted. Advocates call for expanded Head Start programs and universal pre-kindergarten to give children the best chance for a “winning beginning.”

This blog is participating in Blog Action Day, an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion: this year the issue is poverty. Between now and October 15, we will be posting about poverty in our diocese, with material provided by Catholic Charities in its report Poverty in the Diocese of Albany: A Threat to the Common Good. The report, and additional information, is available here.