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Liza from Marshall Street
A modernized version of Alexis De Tocqueville's views on democracy.
There is a two-way street between poverty and education. Its been proven that you need an education to get a job and stay out of poverty, but what if poverty is what is keeping you from getting a good education? This is the question that relates to the 46.2 million people in poverty; whom a large portion of those people are children that are still in school.It is no secret that the gap between the rich and poor has expanded extremely over time in America; which is where the subject of poverty comes into play. Those in the government and even people in the bounds of their own household have been witnesses to the several situations in which poverty takes a negative toll on things. One of these situations being how poverty affects the quality of education.
Poverty has never been something of someone’s choosing. It is a term to label someone’s economic circumstance - specifically if you are lacking basic human needs: food, water, shelter, clothing, etc. Although people are already aware that poverty isn’t something you can tangibly take control of, what isn’t known is that being in poverty even affects the things we can control - like how well we learn and thrive in school.
There is more than what meets the eye when we think of guaranteed free education in America. Although education is a human right that everyone deserves, poverty is a part of our democracy that is disguised as a roadblock that makes it nearly impossible for children to educate themselves under the circumstance. The average person in society doesn’t consider that being poor as a child and regularly going to school intertwine. When in reality, the crisis lies within the kids who were unfortunately born into poverty or adapted to it over time. If you were to look at the circumstance at a broad angle, one could say that anyone in poverty struggles to survive, let alone succeed in school. And this is the start of the problem.
How does Poverty Affect the Quality of Education?
A child’s health and home-life based on their poverty results in whether or not the child has readiness for school. A 2003 study sponsored by the National Center for Children in Poverty found that in families whose income falls below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Line children score far below average on reading, math and general knowledge tests. This proves how there is a clear correlation between the two. The economic situation that a family is involved in is a risk factor for a child’s development and usually postpones their learning.
When a family is in poverty or “below the poverty line”, there are different factors that contribute to a child’s poor performance in school. Andrea Andrew, a professional writer and psychology instructor noted that “approximately 13 million children are at risk of hunger whose families are below the poverty line.” This causes health issues; resulting in children’s absences at school - not getting the same amount of learning as their fellow classmates. Or, complete starvation that deprives them of their concentration in classrooms and human development. Not only do kids have poor performance in school because of this but some have no academic performance at all. Children have had no option but to drop out of school to take on laboring jobs to receive more money for their family’s income; some even going into prostitution.
If it wasn’t for poverty to have ever even existed, guaranteed free education wouldn’t be around today. So, thanking poverty might’ve been acceptable centuries ago when there was no such thing as education. Now, it is a democracy in all parts of the world, destructing more lives than ever. So even though there is a large number of children who want to recover from poverty by prospering in school, their economic circumstances are not allowing them to do so. Their economic circumstances that are depriving them from getting an education is what has caused so many kids to drop out of school, 50% of them to be exact. Proving the theory that children who come from poor families are 5 times more likely to drop out than those who are not. So, it is clear that poverty has a chain affect on education. Education can prevent poverty but what prevents poverty before you even get to have an education?
Communities and citizens need to be mindful that this problem will be an on-going cycle if it isn’t broken down and taken care of soon. Even though education is the strongest bet to getting out of poverty, there are other ways an individual can education themselves besides the ways that a teacher provides. Volunteering and making relationships with those who have some type of power is an effective way to gain skills and helpful experiences (that you can eventually use to get a job). Raising awareness with 5k races or rallies to get a greater crowd involved will even strengthen a support system for those who have the same goal as you.
Poverty will never be completely extinct or invisible, but it is possible to lessen its causes and affects, so that it eventually never interferes with education again.
