Welcome Back!!

Thanks for coming back on board after I took a break for the holidays. As the children get back to school it is time to fire up the computer...is that possible? Well, it's great to be back online. It is my hope to get more people on board and to have some of you respond to my blog postings.

While in New York for a week I came across a most troubling story (in (www.syracuse.com) and, at the same time, a truly sad scenario dealing with the rate of poverty among 50 Upstate New York State schools. In essence, according to the 2017 5-year Census Bureau, poverty is rampant in many areas of the upstate region.

The report indicates that many school age children between the ages of 5-17 are really suffering. For example, the Sidney School District (in 50th place) has a school district poverty rate of 30.2%. It gets worse...Syracuse (in 9th place) has a school district poverty rate of a whopping 46%! And the Rochester school district (1st place) has a poverty rate of 52.2%. That's right, over half of the children attending Rochester schools are living in poverty.

Of course the above doesn't mean the schools are poorly run or that children aren't getting a decent education. It does mean that children and their family members are struggling. It also means that finding resources for schools will be difficult given the poverty situations in the various neighborhoods. And the staggering rate of poverty will portend that severe limitations which will surely occur will hamper what the services provided to their students.

In the coming days I'll be examining many of the factors dealing with poverty and what it means for the students going forward.

Thanks,
Dick