The school poverty gap between Wake and Charlotte now stands at 20 percent.
As noted in today's Charlotte Observer, Charlotte-Mecklenburg's percentage of students receiving federally subsidized lunches this school year is at an all-time high of 51 percent. In Wake, the percentage of 31.2 percent is also an all-time high.
Supporters of Wake's diversity policy warn that abandoning it could hasten white flight and produce Charlotte-like poverty numbers at more schools. But critics of the diversity policy note how Charlotte is outperforming Wake among low-income students on state tests.
In Charlotte, 19 of the 171 schools now have poverty levels over 90 percent, and 61 of them top 75 percent.
Only two of Wake's 156 schools top 75 percent low-income.
Wake's poverty rate jumped from 28.4 percent last school year. The recession has caused more families to apply for subsidized lunches.
Critics have questioned whether some families are falsely reporting their incomes so their children can get subsidized lunches.
Click here for this year's districtwide and school-by-school F&R totals. Click here for last year's information.
Comments
F&R
Fri, 11/20/2009 - 07:30 — mommy59My husband has lost his job 2 times in the past year.The technolgy field in this area bascially sucks.We have never applied for our children to F&R but after this loss we may.We only have one child left in WCPSS so it may be okay to do it.
I just would hate anybody to know my child is F&R because he would be looked at as to why his school is doing poorly or better yet reassigned .
Yup...
Fri, 11/20/2009 - 10:55 — Bob_SconceThe district's claim is that nobody knows who's F&R and who isn't. Parents care about this because they don't want their children to be treated differently because of their F&R status.
Yet, as the SAS debacle has shown, the district definitely uses a child's F&R status to make decisions about him/her.
Depending on how old your children are, it may not matter -- if you have a 5th grader, for example, you probably don't want to get free lunches, because the district will use that fact to assign him/her into a lower math class the following year (based on the inherent assumption in their assignment methodology that F&R kids are stupid). If you have kids in lower grades, it may not matter that much.
We have friends who went to grad school after the tech bubble burst, and put their then-2nd grader into the free lunch program, without any apparent adverse affects.
Credibility....priceless
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 17:22 — teach248"...if you have a 5th grader, for example, you probably don't want to get
free lunches, because the district will use that fact to assign him/her
into a lower math class the following year (based on the inherent
assumption in their assignment methodology that F&R kids are
stupid). "
You have no idea what you are talking about. This is a ridiculous statement with no factual basis.
Interesting...
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 18:59 — Bob_SconceHm.... I have had teachers, both in my kid's school and on this board, tell me that very thing. (Well, they probably didn't use the word "stupid," which I admit is a bit inflammatory, but the effect is the same.)
The "factual basis" for this came from the report issued by SAS in June, and withheld from the board until last month. SAS pointed out that WCPSS' methodology meant that poor students who were otherwise qualified to be tracked into higher math classes were not, simply because they're poor.
Now, there are certainly F&R students tracked to take Algebra in 8th grade. But, two otherwise equal students, one getting free lunches and one not, do not have the same chance of getting into that track in Wake County.
Best wishes - It's a tough call
Fri, 11/20/2009 - 10:41 — TrailerParkGirlWhen klanders65 first started posting, he/she misunderstood that we were F&R, rather than the things I was saying relating to my own experience growing up. I grew up in high F&R areas and at points could have qualified but my parents never applied. He/she warned me never to let on about being F&R and after the SAS report came out it's obvious why. I know there are some educators here that do believe ALL children can succeed, but obviously there is a lot of sentiment around here that low-income = less capable.
It seems an advocacy group is needed for the low-income. It's amazing to me that the same things people could NEVER get away with saying about others based on race, ethnicity, gender etc. are perfectly acceptable to say about people based on their SES.
On your side 1) base assignments are based on the F&R% of the node, not an individual student, although I'd guess it's a factor in individual application/transfer requests and 2) I would think this will be less of an issue as things moved forward.
Best wishes.
So...
Thu, 11/19/2009 - 13:39 — Bob_SconceI suspect that Wake's numbers are also at all-time highs, and that the increase is based on people losing their jobs, not an increase in actual poverty.
F&R status is based on income, not net worth. So, if you're solidly middle class, but have the bad luck to lose your job, then you probably qualify for F&R lunches. And, there are a lot of people in that camp. That's probably doubly true in Charlotte, where legions of bankers have been hit by the economy.
Bankers' kids in CMS? Ha.
Thu, 11/19/2009 - 16:40 — RonBKids in Myers Park and other banker 'hoods were always too cool for public school, especially those not in the "right" neighborhoods after Charotte's resegregation.
The bursting of the Bush bubble is accelerating the demise of public education by increasing the number of failing schools.
The road to Idiocracy is getting shorter by the day, thanks to the "greed is good" collapse of the financial system.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Do you ever
Thu, 11/19/2009 - 20:57 — woodstockZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Do you ever have anything interesting to say? You have a very narrow view of the world and what happens in it. We get it.
Sooo...
Thu, 11/19/2009 - 16:50 — Bob_SconceI was using the word "bankers" broadly -- I meant the people who lost their jobs at Wachovia & BoA.
I can tell that you have your partisan mind made up, so I won't bother addressing anything else you said.
...
Thu, 11/19/2009 - 13:54 — SideburnsAnd suddenly, under current policies, many schools would be deemed "unhealthy".
Same students, different day.