Children in poverty

One in seven Wisconsin children lives in poverty, according to a new report from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

The child poverty rate in central Milwaukee, according to the report, "is an astounding 56 percent."

MPS, as a result, serves a disproportionate share of students in poverty. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Employment and Training Institute recently prepared a report for MPS called that lends some perspective to the ramifications of crushing poverty.

According to the ETI report, "Children Most Impacted by the Economic Recession":

The effects of poverty are intensified in buildings where most of the students are from families in great financial need. Parents face income limitations on their ability to meet their children’s basic food needs, clothe children as they grow, secure safe housing with adequate space for the children, meet rent and heating costs, afford a working vehicle for transportation, support elderly members of the household, and meet health needs of themselves and their children – let alone providing financial resources for school trips, educational materials, computers and other supports for their children. Stresses placed on parents struggling to obtain or maintain jobs or working multiple jobs in a deteriorating economy may be transferred to the children, and students’ problems of lack of food, inadequate housing, unsafe neighborhoods and even homelessness are immediately seen in the classroom. Long-term, the unemployment and underemployment experienced by many Milwaukee parents may dampen the educational aspirations of their children, particularly when such underemployment is heavily concentrated in inner city neighborhoods.

Among the report's findings:

• 92% of MPS students now attend a school where more than half of the children are poor. At the same time, only 4% of suburban and exurban public school students in the four-county area are in buildings where more than half of the children are poor.

• A majority of city families have incomes that are less than 185% of the poverty level; a third have incomes that are below the poverty level. In the central city, almost three-quarters of working families have incomes that are less than 185% of poverty.
  
• The vast majority -- 84% -- of working single parents in the county live in the city rather than the suburbs. Most of the single parents in the city are poor.

• Even before the economy crashed, the job gap between unemployed job seekers and welfare recipients expected to work andavailable full-time jobs located in central city neighborhoods was 7 to 1 in May 2006.
  
• While MPS students account for 9% of the state’s school population, they total 25% of all students in low-income families, or those at or below 130% of poverty.

• MPS has just 3% of the non-poor children in the state.

• Even through MPS had a net enrollment decline of 6,069 children in its city schools over six years, it saw a net increase of 1,862 children with family incomes at or below 130% of poverty.