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January 17, 2015 10:00 pm - NewsBehavingBadly.com

[su_right_ad]A new report reveals that 51% of of school children qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, the highest number in at least 50 years.

…according to the Southern Education Foundation, in 2013, more than half of the students attending public school lived in poverty.

Those numbers are representative of the growing problem of child poverty in the US. Overall, one in five US children live in poverty. It has only recently been dropping, with 14.7 million US children living in poverty in 2013, down from 16.1 million in 2012. In 2012, out of 35 economically developed countries, only Romania had a higher child poverty rate than the US…

In 2013, 21 states reported that the majority of students in their public schools came from low-income families. That’s a huge jump from 2011, when 17 states reported such majorities. Ten years ago, it was only four states.

There is a geographical element to poverty. Thirteen of those states with a majority of low-income students in their schools are located in the south, six in the west. Mississippi is faring the worst, with 71% of its public school students coming from low-income families. In Texas, that number is 60% and in Alabama 58%.

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D.B. Hirsch
D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

23 responses to More Than Half Of U.S. School Students Live In Poverty

  1. Red Eye Robot January 17th, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    Wait, just last week we were talking about Obama’s great economy and all the jobs created

    • Wayout January 17th, 2015 at 10:28 pm

      That’s what I was going to say. Bam Bam has been our President, so why hasn’t everything been fixed? Black unemployment is still at the highest levels ever, as is food stamp usage and other government handouts.

      • Abby Normal January 17th, 2015 at 11:19 pm

        Bam Bam? You need to stop watching so many cartoons.

        • Wayout January 18th, 2015 at 12:54 am

          Yep, that’s our guy. Barack H. Obama., Bam Bam. AKA “The Bamster”, “The Dictator”, “Dear Leader”, “The Messiah” (I really love that one)

          • OldLefty January 18th, 2015 at 7:13 am

            1) I thought he didn’t lead.

            2) So,”Bam Bam. AKA “The Bamster”, these are variations of what they called BushCheney….. like “Shrub” , “Dim Son”, King George and “Darth”.
            “The Dictator”, “Dear Leader” are just copied from BushCheney.

            3) Love the Messiah?
            Why? the only person who uses it are those from the right and Farrakan, (who hates him), and MSM who dutifully repeat right wing talking points of the rest of the herd. ( And please don’t come back with Barbara Walters who is just parroting what the cool kids were saying at the moment).

      • whatthe46 January 17th, 2015 at 11:33 pm

        you’re not very bright. and you lie.

        • Wayout January 18th, 2015 at 12:59 am

          What do you mean lie? Check the stats for yourself. The truth cannot be denied! Oh, and did I forget to mention stagnant wages?

          • StoneyCurtisll January 18th, 2015 at 1:13 pm

            I bet you want to go back to the days of slavery..
            When all “blacks” were employed, (by their owners)..

            And real wages (adjusted for inflation) have been static since the mid 1960’s..
            I guess you blame the toddler Barack Obama for the last 50 years of stagnant wages for the middle class. (why not you blame him for everything else).

      • Candide Thirtythree January 18th, 2015 at 3:44 am

        Your guy broke the whole world and now you are complaining because the black guy didn’t fix it all fast enough? Your guy had 8 years to destroy it and everyone knows it takes longer to build something than to tear it down.

      • KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker January 18th, 2015 at 6:13 am

        You asked: “so why hasn’t everything been fixed?”
        Answer: because it will take time to repair all the damage republicans have done to our country.
        Yet another reason to vote democratic.

      • OldLefty January 18th, 2015 at 7:21 am

        That’s what I was going to say. Bam Bam has been our President, so why hasn’t everything been fixed?

        ________

        Because it was 30 years in the making and EVERY Republican vote against EVERYTHING that will help, joined by those Democrats who’s bread is buttered by the same people who have no interest in improvement.

        They had a meeting at the Caucus Room , Frank Luntz, and senior GOP members worked out a plan on Inauguration day, 2009, to repeatedly block Obama over the coming four years to
        try to ensure he would not be re-elected.

        

Hence, Cap and Trade went from being “market solutions” when Republicans promoted it to “anti businesses Cap and Tax” when Obama shunned his base and reached across the aisle to promote a policy that REPUBLICANS had supported in the past, like the
        GOP;

Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act (SB 1770)
And
The Consumer Choice Health Security Act (SB 1743)

        As former Sen. George Voinovich goes on record telling … “If Obama
        was for it, we had to be against it. “He [McConnell] wanted everyone to hold the fort. All he cared about was making sure Obama could never have a clean victory.”

        Translation; Use EVERY trick in the book to prevent him from doing what he was elected to do, then run on, “He did not do what he was elected to do!!”

      • majii January 18th, 2015 at 12:58 pm

        I’m a retired teacher living in a southern state. You need to wake up. It’s not only blacks without jobs, it’s whites, too, at least, that is the case here in my state where we’ve had a GOP governor and a GOP majority in the state legislature for the past 12+ years. I’ve noticed that some in the GOP only feign concern about blacks and other minorities having a higher unemployment rate than whites, but this concern never comes in the form of them asking their lawmakers to sponsor legislation to deal with the problem, and if one of their lawmakers even hints at addressing the issue, s/he is attacked, vehemently.

        Faith without works is nothing. Talk is cheap. I usually hear this fake concern for these groups when someone on the right cannot face facts and reality. They deemed this president a failure on the day he was inaugurated in 2009, worked to make it so, and now that they’ve been proven wrong, they are concerned about the high unemployment rate of non-whites. Hogwash, pure, unadulterated hogwash. If one is really concerned about an issue, one doesn’t fail to address it year after year.

        My state has the 2nd highest unemployment rate in the nation. Why haven’t these politicians done anything for their citizens, since they swear up and down that the federal government can’t do anything right? Also, any American who thinks that a president is solely responsible for governing the country, doesn’t know jacksh*t about the Constitution they tend to say they “follow” and “love,” and s/he should lose his/her right to vote for a year, or at the very minimum, his/her right to discuss anything having to do with how our government operates. It’s impossible to have a decent discussion when one party doesn’t know certain things, and when one party tends to subvert reality for political ideology and other things (you know what I’m talking about, but these things will remain unnamed for the sake of brevity.)

        Teaching the Constitution is something I did for 33 years, and I’m well-versed on what the founders intended when they wrote it. They gave Congress more powers than they did the president because they wanted its members to be directly responsible to U.S. citizens. It makes no sense to me that millions of Americans pay congress-critters’ millions in salaries and benefits and don’t hold them responsible for anything.

        We’re not getting our money’s worth and some of us are allowing these critters to earn more than the average American ( and probably you, too) and do nothing to earn it—nothing except to spew forth with rhetorical nonsense (ie. “no-go zones, “undocumented immigrants with calves the size of cantaloupes.”) peddle crazy conspiracy theories (ie., birthers, “ending DADT will cause the total collapse of the military,”) tell an endless stream of lies (ie. just having republicans win in November caused the economy to improve,”) bastardize Christianity (ie. “gun-toting Jesus,” “torture is great,” the poor should be demonized”) and make up sh*t to get people riled up (ie., Obamacare has death panels,” “the one-percent are the real job creators,”) and make some vote against their own interests. Stupid people allow others to manipulate them into doing the wrong thing for their families, imo (ie. being satisfied making low wages, struggling to send your kid to college, not being able to take your kid to the doctor when s/he needs to go.) Other nations’ governments manage to do something about these issues, yet the “greatest” nation on the planet can’t accomplish these things? BS.

        It’s stupidity on parade. I never cease to be amazed at the number of Americans who lay all of the responsibility for governing this country on a president’s shoulders and give members of Congress a free pass. This indicates to me that they don’t believe we live in a representative democracy but in a dictatorship. If they really understood the concept of a representative democracy, they would never expect a president to rule as a dictator. It’s insane to continue paying millions to members of Congress who have totally failed to govern, as mandated by the Constitution.

      • fahvel January 18th, 2015 at 1:41 pm

        hey ahole, don’t you feel proud to be living in a country where the disenfranchisd can get some help from the caring humanitarian govt?

    • whatthe46 January 17th, 2015 at 11:31 pm

      so, the millions of people who have become employed are making 100k a year? this president has done his job and then some. just because someone is working doesn’t mean they aren’t poor.

    • Candide Thirtythree January 18th, 2015 at 3:42 am

      It is republican states that are not pulling their weight.

  2. Abby Normal January 17th, 2015 at 11:15 pm

    More proof the Republican agenda is working.

  3. Ron Jackson January 18th, 2015 at 12:11 am

    Given the right wings hatred for the poor, they should feel overjoyed

  4. KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker January 18th, 2015 at 6:10 am

    Conservatives are working hard to destroy our middle class.

    • Suzanne McFly January 18th, 2015 at 11:08 am

      I don’t know why her speeches don’t make the most rabid right winger feel they can understand what she is talking about and feel the disenfranchisement the top 1% has created for the rest of us.

      • StoneyCurtisll January 18th, 2015 at 1:01 pm

        They dont want to hear it, much less see it..
        This is why the right hates Warren so much, and will do anything they can to smear her.

        • Suzanne McFly January 18th, 2015 at 5:19 pm

          I wish they would simply listen to what she stands for and comprehend how it would help them directly. I have a better chance as winning the lottery, but I still can hope.

  5. Carla Akins January 18th, 2015 at 7:53 am

    This is so ridiculously shameful I don’t believe words can properly convey how upset I am about this. GE pays no taxes but receives a refund of taxpayer dollars and people in the United States of America are going hungry? How is that even possible?

    • mea_mark January 18th, 2015 at 11:43 am

      We let the top 1% deceive us and hijack the lawmakers. For too long the rich have been writing laws to favor themselves and keep the poor beaten down. It is time to reverse the cycle for the next 40 years.