In Our View: Poverty Hits Classrooms

When it comes to dealing with the wounds caused by poverty in our communities, schools are on the front lines. And while we laud the foot soldiers in this battle, it also is imperative to call upon the generals to recognize the problem and work toward solutions.

As a recent two-part series from Columbian reporter Susan Parrish detailed, the end of the Great Recession has been slow to reach many of our citizens, and that has had a disturbing impact on schools and their students. The numbers tell the story: In 2013-14, 46.3 percent of the students in Evergreen Public Schools qualified for free or reduced-price lunch; in Vancouver Public Schools, the poverty rate was about 53 percent. Meanwhile, nearly every school in Clark County has seen an increase in the percentage of students living in poverty when compared with the pre-recession era of 2007-08.

Yes, for all of the declarations that the recession officially ended in 2009, the upturn in the economy has been slow to trickle down to those most in need. And the need is dire. For 2015, the poverty level as determined by the federal government is $24,250 in annual income for a family of four. To qualify for free school lunch for the 2014-15 school year, the threshold is set at an income of $31,005. The idea that many of our neighbors and friends and co-workers are raising families with such meager incomes should be distressing. And the fact that the situation facing local schools can be quantified with firm numbers should carry more weight than a metric ton of anecdotal evidence.

For schools, such poverty has generated a variety of responses, starting with resource centers that assist low-income families with food, clothing, shelter, employment, transportation and medical care. In 2014, the Share Backpack Program delivered 70,977 bags of food to tide students over for the weekend. And Vancouver Public Schools has developed a series of Family-Community Resource Centers, with director Tamara Shoup telling The Columbian, “We’re at an exciting point. Now we’re looking to provide FCRC services to all schools by 2020.”

Shoup is to be applauded for her work, yet her quote points out a conundrum. When society routinely accepts that poverty will be endemic, then we have failed those most in need. When poverty continues to expand in the midst of an economic recovery, then political leaders should be compelled to foster change in our economic system.

Some people might point to the existence of poverty assistance such as free or reduced-price lunches as a failure in itself, as an example of government largesse that entrenches a welfare class. But let us begin with this premise: Allowing children to go to school hungry or allowing them to head home for the weekend knowing there is not enough food in the house is not an option. Hunger and other aspects of poverty affect the ability of students to learn and help to foster a cycle of generational poverty. In short, we must be better than this as a society.

As Julie Mueller, principal of Lacamas Heights Elementary in the affluent Camas School District pointed out: “We have homeless kids in our community, in this small, sweet little school. For my little building, we’re at a crisis point. We can’t just keep stomping out fires.”

School administrators throughout Clark County have firsthand knowledge regarding the realities of the economic recovery. As they can attest, some of the symptoms have been dealt with, but a cure remains far from reality as the battle rages on.