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click image for full size Other articles in Part 2 The best and worst of times Why are some people unable to earn a living? Poverty research Minimum wage fails to keep up Do the poor pay taxes? Graph: Full-time minimum wage falls below poverty line Related links State Department of Education National Center for Children in Poverty Oregon State University Financial Aid

Education plays a key role in poverty story by Andrea Dailey Few circles are as vicious as the one that loops together education and poverty. On the upside of the circle is the fact that a good education is, for most people, the best way to prevent or escape poverty. On the downside is the fact that poverty enormously complicates both learning and teaching. Children born into poor households typically have fewer opportunities to develop language and social skills and the "readiness to learn" that is at the center of academic success. Programs such as the federal Head Start and Oregon's state-financed version try to make up for these shortfalls. However, funding in Oregon currently limits participation to less than half the 17,000 eligible three- and four-year-olds. Once in school, children of the poor have even more disadvantages. They may not have a quiet place to study. If home life is stressful, they may "act out" in school. Other students may laugh at their clothes. They often may be hungry and sick and unable to concentrate or to learn. The results often are disastrous. Consider, for example, the high-school dropout rate, which relates to poverty in adult life. While the national dropout rate from 1985 to 1996 fell by 9 percent, Oregon's rate soared by 33 percent. Based on 1997-98 data, more than a quarter of high-school students statewide are expected to drop out over a 4-year period. The rate in Portland Public Schools is 40 percent, according to the state Department of Education. The department's study shows that most students who dropped out already had fallen far behind grade level, often as much as 2 or 3 years, which signals that important turning points are as likely to be found in the dropout's elementary and middle school years as in high school. Dropouts face a statistically scary future. They are twice as likely as high-school graduates to be unemployed, 7.5 times more likely to depend on public assistance programs, 6 times more likely to be unwed parents, and 3.5 times more likely to be arrested. Single parenthood, especially among teens, and having a police record are large barriers to employment and, therefore, big factors in poverty. The rest of the state is poorer, too, when students quit school. Every notch in the dropout rate represents lost tax revenue, reduced participation in political and civic life, and a step back for the next generation in the dropout's family. At the same time, taxpayer costs increase for social services and crime. Many factors are linked to the dropout rate. Two are especially powerful: family poverty and minority status. Racial and ethnic minorities, traditionally overrepresented in the ranks of the poor, also make up more than their share of dropouts. In Oregon, Hispanics have the highest dropout rate, nearly 3 times as high as whites in 1997-98, and African Americans have the next highest, nearly twice that of whites. To a significant extent, minority-student dropouts reflect cultural illiteracy in many Oregon schools, according to activist and educator Johnny Lake of Salem. Lake has counseled students in Salem's McKay High School and conducts multicultural sensitivity training for a number of organizations, including schools whose teachers and administrators are mostly white and sometimes skeptical. Lake says, "Teachers ask me, 'Why do I need (your) training? I know my subject, and I know how to teach it.' And I say to them, 'How can you teach anything to a child you know nothing about?' " Knowing each student-and connecting with him or her in meaningful ways-is key to educational success at every level, say educators around the state. They include Juanita Fagan, principal of Williams Elementary School in Williams, about 25 miles south of Grants Pass. Fagan's school, whose poverty level is 76 percent, heads the list of Oregon's 1999 Title I Programs of Merit due to the children's strong academic achievement and the school's dynamic services for children. (Title I, part of 1994 federal legislation, directs special funding to schools with high poverty rates. In the 1998-99 school year, slightly more than half the public elementary, middle, and high schools in Oregon received $67 million in Title I money.) Williams Elementary wasn't always a success story. In fact, for much of Fagan's 15-year tenure as principal, she and her staff believed that high poverty went in lockstep with low achievement. "We'd say, don't expect much because look what we have to work with," says Fagan. Then, with the first Title I money 4 years ago, Williams Elementary undertook reform in major academic and student-discipline areas-and in the attitudes of all staff from cooks to classroom aides to teachers. "Now, we say that every kid has potential. We can't change their lives or their culture-we don't want to-but we do want to show that we care and that we set high expectations," Fagan says. "We try to create a family here for these kids, and we teach the three R's: respect, responsibility, and resilience." In 1998, 95 percent of Williams students met or exceeded state achievement goals. From 1995-1998, Williams students consistently have tested at the top of their district and in 1998 also beat the scores of the much larger Grants Pass district. It's the kind of success that Title I was designed to produce, says Carol Talley, Title I specialist with the Oregon Department of Education in Salem. "Some kids can overcome poverty, and some schools have gotten better at helping more of them do it, but they are the notable exceptions. (Title I) says we'll provide the money to help, now you base what you build on these successful examples." Even the best education from kindergarten through high school, however, doesn't by itself keep poverty at bay in adulthood. For most women and men, a college degree makes the difference between merely getting by and being on a solid footing financially. For example, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty, poverty rates rose more than 75 percent in the past 20 years for children whose parents had a high school diploma but no college degree. The difference in income levels is likely to grow in the future, as more jobs require more education and training just to gain entry and as inflation eats away at the stagnant earning rates of high-school graduates. Nevertheless, few people use college as a ticket to escape poverty. Only 7 percent of students from the bottom quarter of the economic scale get a bachelor's degree, compared to 51 percent of students from the top quarter. The sharp increase in college costs since 1980 and the big drop in subsidies for low-income students have a lot to do with that. Mainly because of generous federal programs 20 years ago, the mix in financial aid packages was 75 percent grants, which didn't have to be repaid, and 25 percent loans, which did, according to Kate Peterson, OSU director of financial aid. Today, the split is reversed. The result after four years can be a debt measured in tens of thousands of dollars. Economists point out that high debt makes college a riskier investment for low-income students because, on average, they're less likely to finish their degree and less likely to earn enough to pay off the loans. Students and their families don't look at it quite like that, says Peterson. They just think college is plainly unaffordable, and Peterson sees that perception as a big obstacle in itself. Some researchers see this misperception as the crucial first step on the path a low-income student takes away from college. After concluding early on that college is unaffordable, the student's later decisions-about whether to stay in high school, which courses to take, and whether even to apply for college-make college less of an option in the future. For those without a college education, job training is an option. Education in the form of job training for teens and adults has been a staple of antipoverty programs. Especially now, when the emphasis is on moving people off welfare and into the workforce, job training is seen as a key element of the strategy. Indeed, placement without training is ineffective in the long run, says a recent study by the Center for Law and Social Policy. That's because welfare recipients usually have low skill levels and often don't stay in the low-wage, dead-end jobs they're able to get, yet they don't have what it takes to get better jobs. Though job training unquestionably has helped many of those who received it, debate is brisk about its effectiveness in reducing poverty overall. Those who have studied programs of the past several decades tend to conclude that gains are modest. One reason is that most programs are funded to serve as few as 5 to 10 percent of those in poverty, notes Jeff Davis of The Oregon Consortium, which administers a workforce-training program in 23 rural Oregon counties. For another thing, even after receiving some training and a full-time job, a worker earning minimum wage still is hovering around the poverty line. And, getting a job is only part of the exercise. Keeping it for longer than a few months is the more difficult part, especially for the chronically unemployed whose burdens often include substance abuse, mental or physical disability, and, obviously, no experience at sticking with a job.   Article 4 of 7 in Part 2   back to top

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