The number of children living in poverty in Bristol has increased more than 50 percent in the past decade.
Slightly less than a third of the city’s students now qualify for a free or reduced price lunch based on their family income. It was a bit over 20 percent a decade ago.
That amounts more than 1,000 extra students coming from impoverished backgrounds, said Tom O’Brien, a Board of Education member.
“This is not the Bristol of 10 or 20 years ago,” he said.
What’s more, the rate of increase is rising, with the number of poor students up 8 percent in just the past year, school lunch statistics show.
O’Brien called it “a tremendous increase” in the past year.
“I was pretty taken aback,” O’Brien said.
He pointed out that it is particularly alarming because the poverty rates are highest among grade school students, which could mean that the overall figures will keep on rising.
“The percentage of children in poverty is going up,” said Philip Streifer, the school superintendent.
There are “very large” numbers of students who qualify for lunch aid “in every school now” rather than having them concentrated in a few elementary schools as in the past, O’Brien said..
At the same time that poverty rates have risen, school statistics show that the percentage of students who come from homes where English is not the main language is up 20 percent over the past 10 years. A bit less than 8 percent of students don’t speak English at home.
The number of minority students is also way up.
A decade ago, they made up 13.6 percent of the student population, or about 1,000 students in all.
During the last school year, minority students constituted 23 percent of the student body as a whole, or 2,078 students. That’s twice as many minority students.
O’Brien said that educating students from poor homes is tougher – as a rule – than teaching children from more affluent homes. It takes more money and more effort, he said.
O’Brien said that the increase in poverty is directly tied to the changing housing stock in town, where more and more rental properties are owned by out-of-state investors who may not have much interest in the impact their renters have on the community.
O’Brien said the school board can only work out the best way to educate the students who walk in the door.
But, he said, City Hall had better begin to address seriously the reasons that the city’s population is growing increasingly impoverished.
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
25 comments:
OK. So that explains why class room hours has been reduced.
Please note that the above is a sarcastic remark.
Ok Tommy, Stick them in a couple of new megaschools, that will take care of the problem.
As an added benefit, It will cut down on the number of English translators and security guards we will need at the schools.
maybe we can put the poor children in meat pies for the rich racists ala Sweeney todd
I know this is just a matter of semantics for some people but free and reduced lunch is up to 185% of the official poverty rate.
The following is from National School Lunch Program website:
"4. How do children qualify for free and reduced-price meals?
Any child at a participating school may purchase a meal through the National School Lunch Program. Children from families with incomes at or below 130 percent of the poverty level are eligible for free meals. Those with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price meals, for which students can be charged no more than 40 cents. (For the period July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008, 130 percent of the poverty level is $26,845 for a family of four; 185 percent is $38,203.)"
According to the 2006 US Census 27.6% (approx 1 out of 4)of all Americans would be classified in this category and 19.6 (approx 1 out of 5) in Connecticut.
Given that Bristol has more affordable homes than surrounding towns and higher educational achievement than other nearby cities it is not surprising that more families in the lower income brackets are attracted to Bristol.
The increase in languages other than English is also evident nation-wide as 50 million people have been added to the US population since 1990 with nearly 25 million since 2000. Much of this growth has been from legal and illegal immigrants arriving from non-English speaking countries.
Bristol isn't all that different than what is reflected in the rest of the United States. Most of the newly arriving immigrants are in the lower 25% of income earners.
The US Congress needs to get back to addressing immigration issues and coming up with a workable policy.
Puerto Ricans are not coming to Bristol because the schools have "higher education achievement than other nearby cities."
7:09PM poster....
THANK YOU. That was a really informative about how free and reduced lunch is calculated. And I do agree with you about immigration. However, I think Bristol is seeing more rapid changes than other towns because of the availability of housing and the fact that its an affordable town for investors, who look at mill rate. So, Bristol is getting the brunt of the factors that you spoke about because we are prime targets with the housing stock.
It is a good thing that Artie Ward made housing issues and code enforcement a big part of his campaing platform so he is up to speed on these very important issues
Whatever else people want to say about immigration, it is not driving the rise in poverty in Bristol, unless a bunch of English-speaking illegals are sneaking in. The number of families who don't speak English at home has risen a bit, but nowhere near as fast as the poverty rate. And it's also clear that many of the kids who are coming from poor families are white because even if every minority student was poor -- and that's not the case -- there's still a large number of poor students left over.
Steve,
You are right. Bristol always has had a sizable number of poor white children. Common problems among these children are single parent households often linked to drug and alcohol problems and transient "guests" moving in and out. This number has averaged around 20%
The recent arrivals to Bristol however do represent larger numbers of non-white and non-English speaking children in the lower income brackets. This is reflective of the changing face of America.
Immigration issues are adding to problems that already existed as non-English speaking immigrants tend to be disproportionately represented in poverty figures.
People often refer to the poor of the past and compare them to the poor of today. It is important to recognize that prior to the end of WWII 40% of American families were classified as being in poverty compared to 12.7% today.
The difference between then and now was that the majority of these families had a mother and father, possessed few luxuries, and focused largely on family, work, religion, and community. Rampant drug use, children out of wedlock, and focus on entertainment-oriented activities were not the norm.
Until we address the drug problems, family structure issues, and skewed norms mirroring those of the entertainment industry (Spears' sisters come to mind), we will not solve the problems of structural poverty.
I agree with 8:54 and you, most poor are white and speak English.
But without a family structure, the past will repeat itself. I have the bad luck of having a 3 family rental unit next to my house. All 3 renters are poor
, white, have kids is school. What do they all have in common, all are single mothers, , their mothers where single mothers, and since they just like drinking and smoking outside everyday, I have a feeling that their young girls will also become single mothers.
If they save their money instead of drink, parting, and smoking, I am sure their kids would have a easier life and have better moral.
Those 15, 13 and 10 years old gilrs
will be pregnant, since their mother are always out and parting,instead of taking care of them.
Most of these people, if not all get some type of Assistance~I feel that they should take some responsibility of earning that Assistance by doing Community Service in their own Neighborhoods or wherever need in Bristol~NO Community Service~NO Assistance! And,I will bet you will see them coming out of the woodwork and Maybe it will have a Positive Impact on a few that they would rather work than Hang Out Smoking and Drinking All Day and build a Positive Impact on their Children.
Quite clearly, Bristol is moving more towards the Waterbury's and New Britains of the world than the Farmington or Avon's.
Such a shame. And as the crime increases - as we see gas station after gas station get rolled over in late night armed robberies, the "more fortunate" are moving out of the new suburbs (Burlington, Avon, Canton, W. Htfd). Call it "white flight part 2"....
I live in Bristol now out of convenience, but when the time comes, I will not raise kids in this town. There is way too many housing projects and subsidized housing in this town. Handouts are bringing down this community. Sad to say but true.
I've lived in this town for 40 years and I can't believe the amount of Spanish speaking people that have taken up residence in here. It wouldn't be so bad if they would learn to speak English but they think that everyone else should learn Spanish. They feel that everyone owes them.
Please give us tax payers a break and start carrying your weight and PLEASE, learn to speak English!!!!!
Ron Paul for President 2008
"I live in Bristol now out of convenience, but when the time comes, I will not raise kids in this town. There is way too many housing projects and subsidized housing in this town. Handouts are bringing down this community. Sad to say but true."
Because nothing says prosperity like a permanent underclass living in a squalor that would make the Victorian British blush.
What is perhaps the most disturbing, and disappointing, thing I find from reading these responses is that no one has asked themselves whether Bristol has the economy that can enable the poor to lift themselves out of poverty.
Lacking advanced educational skills the only resource available for people is the retail/service sector of our economy. And with a dwindling industrial sector and a non-existant "white collar" environment, retail seems for many poor the best way to go.
Right now the national, and the state, minimum wage (which retail/service often pays) does not provide enough for a person to live above the poverty level. For that to happen a living wage would be necessary. In the absence of that, or the skills necessary for economic advancement, there exists public assistance intended to help the person gain the job or skills necessary for advancement.
For the record Bristol has three housing units available solely on income level. The rest are offered toward senior citizens. Two of the three are moderate income units which means they are offered for people whose income is up to 125% above the poverty level.
The city, and the housing authority have worked for several years to combat issues of drugs and crime within the units with better success than if these neigborhoods were left to their own fate.
Oh, and these were originally built for veterans returning from WWII and Korea as transitional housing. Back when supporting the troops was more than a bumper sticker and taking a trip.
As for Section 8, well let me ask the small government/less government crowd a question. How does giving a local government police powers to take away a small business owners (Landlords) ability to make money by taking in Section 8 tenants jive with your political philosophy? I'm just asking cause obviously Section 8 is a quick way for a landlord to make a profit. Despite what is obviously a broken system it is at one level a free market at work.
The housing units you speak of are not only available to seniors. They are available to seniors and the disabled. Unfortunately, disabled also means the recovering crack-head felon living next door to grandma over in Bonnie Acres. Housing projects should be a help up and out of the ghetto, not a lifestyle. If you have three generations of the same family, all living somewhere on Lillian Rd., the system isnt working.
Because of course all disabled people are crack head felons. I don't think I've ever seen three generations of anything living in the housing projects.
Well, I can see the Christmas spirit is alive and well in Bristol on Christmas Eve! (12/24 10:30 p.m. poster.) Thanks for your racist comments! Peace on Earth, goodwill to everyone who speaks English? Lovely, just lovely.
"I don't think I've ever seen three generations of anything living in the housing projects."
Is watching the Housing Projects your hobby?
"Is watching the Housing Projects your hobby?"
Maybe I happen to live in one of the housing projects.
"Maybe I happen to live in one of the housing projects."
Then how do you know that there haven't been families who spent 3 generations in the projects unless you and your family have lived there for 3 generations?
Like there arent any 30-35yr old grandmothers with her kids teen babies around.... please
Handouts are no good!!! It upsets me to see the west end go to hell... We need to get a grip on the towns problems and our town leadership needs to bring us there. Section 8 might be a sore subject but we cant be scared to talk about it. Someone should buy davis dr from the town and rebuild it. Its very run down.
We obviously have not learned our lessons from the 60's.
Handouts (without obligation)perpetuate the situation.
Government involvement has a price, and it usually results in loss of self determination.
Bristol seems to love that, but hasn't learned from it.
Wards plan to get more money just keeps the cycle going.
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