[US Census Data] Student poverty levels drop; educators say data hide truth

From The Modesto Bee

by Adam Ashton

Northern San Joaquin Valley students are less likely to live in poverty than they were 10 years ago, census figures show.

The percentage of Stanislaus County students living in poor families dropped from 23.1 percent in 1995 to 19.2 percent in 2003, according to the Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, released Tuesday.

Neighboring counties experienced similar trends, with student poverty dropping from the mid-1990s but rising slightly since 2001.

Educators said new residents lured by new subdivisions are behind the overall trend. They cautioned that valley schools continue to have relatively high numbers of English language learners and pockets of extreme poverty.

"The San Joaquin Valley is not the garden spot of California," said Mo-desto City Schools Superintendent Jim Enochs, comparing poverty levels in large valley districts with their urban counterparts along the coast.

Santa Clara and San Mateo counties had poverty rates for children ages 5 to 17 of about half of Stanislaus County's 2003 rate.

But in the Modesto City district, the rate was still at 30 percent in 2003, down just 2 percentage points from 1995.

The estimates are released annually and based mostly on median-income projections.

The declining valley rates sometimes equate with a drop in federal funds for schools. The Manteca Unified School District stands to lose $300,000 in federal Title I funds for low-income students this year, Superintendent Cathy Nichols-Washer said.

She also said the census figures mask the number of students whose parents work jobs and commute for more than an hour each day. Some of those families are barely above the poverty line, she said.

"Just because families don't meet that poverty level doesn't mean they're not in need in some other way," she said.

Several districts reported adding Advanced Placement courses over the past 10 years but said they did so to improve opportunities for students, not because they were catering to wealthier students.

"We continue to change our curriculum based on the demands for our kids outside of high school, not necessarily where they come from, but where they're going," said Ed Felt, assistant superintendent at the Turlock Unified School District.

Report 'doesn't reflect reality'

Many of the most significant declines in poverty took place in smaller communities that have grown significantly in the past decade. Districts in Ceres, Empire and Patterson all saw student poverty decline by more than 8 percentage points from 1995 to 2003.

The 167-student Valley Home Joint Elementary School District had a decline of more than 20 percentage points, down to 4.5percent in 2003.

Valley Home Superintendent Gary Hudson said the economic report "doesn't reflect reality in the school."

He said half of the district's students receive free and reduced meals through a federal program, a fact that hasn't changed in six years. He said he worries the new statistics could cut into the extra federal money his district receives to help its poorest students.

One big district showing marked improvement in poverty levels was the 11,000-student Merced City School District. Student poverty declined there from 45 percent in 1995 to 30 percent in 2003.

Lee Andersen, Merced County's superintendent of education, said the area's changing economic picture likely came from new homeowners buying property and commuting to other cities for work. Some Merced County cities nearly doubled in size since the 1990 census.

He said the improving socio-economic status of the county's students could set the stage for higher academic achievement.

"You're generally going to have kids coming to school more prepared to deal with curriculum and the school environment," he said. "More kids from middle-income families will have preschool, and generally more kids from middle-income families will have parents who had longer and more successful academic experiences."

Henry Escobar, superintendent of the Livingston Union Elementary School District, said he noticed an improving financial scene in his community when he started evaluating families for a federally funded free and reduced-price meal program.

"We're happy for our families, and we're happy for our community to see that our socioeconomic standing is improving," Escobar said.

Carol Whiteside, president of Modesto's Great Valley Center, tied the improving poverty levels in local school districts to rising employment and homeownership rates. She said districts now face a challenge in getting those students into college.

A 2003 report from the California Postsecondary Education Commission showed 19 percent of Stanislaus County students completing courses to enter a public university compared with 35percent statewide.

"The correlation between economic well-being and adult achievement is pretty direct," Whiteside said. "It helps in terms of adult education and in terms of work force preparation.

"It's good news, but it isn't good enough news that means we can stop worrying about it," she said.