It's Time We Advocate for the Poor

My View

It has always bothered me when someone at a professional event or a social gathering utters this overused cliché: “My family was poor, but we never knew it.”

Usually I just don’t respond. But I know the statement is ridiculous. That’s because having grown up in poverty in Philadelphia, I knew all too well I was poor! And being poor was painful and humiliating. And it is not something I will ever forget.

The latest U.S. Census revealed that 43 million Americans still live in poverty. Add to this the reality that 13 million American children (one of every five) live in poverty. In fact, children are the poorest Americans, and the younger these children are, the poorer they are.

This is a portrait of immoral, costly and preventable poverty, homelessness, hunger, health problems and underfunded education in impoverished school districts.

The U.S. is a tremendously unequal society. And too many of us, especially from affluent families and privilege, tend to overgeneralize the poor as lazy and without goals and aspirations. But the causes of poverty — being born into a poor family, the loss of employment, inadequate education, substance abuse, emotional distress from adverse reality (many suffering war veterans) and mental problems — are difficult factors to overcome.

Escaping Poverty

Anybody serving in public school governance should consider how they might have struggled had they been born into or forced involuntarily by some circumstance into a much lower socioeconomic status. I know firsthand how difficult it was to escape my impoverished background, and I take no credit for doing so. It would have been so convenient for everyone to pigeonhole me as lazy and worthless. But the reality is that many persons, most of them educators, believed in me and encouraged and motivated me.

And, yet, some safety net programs that once supported my family now are being frozen or reduced. These programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (widely known as food stamps), child care assistance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and unemployment assistance help millions of Americans in poverty to survive.

Put this in the context of corporations such as General Motors, Apple and Verizon evading billions in taxes every year and monumentally rich CEOs paying lower effective tax rates than their secretaries. That’s billions of dollars in revenue going to affluent individuals and corporations rather than equalizing opportunities for needy families.

An enlightened society must recognize that being poor often is a function of fate. It can be a terrible and lasting experience from which it is extremely difficult to escape.

A Shameful State

And so, I argue there is a moral imperative now for public school leaders to speak out and advocate on behalf of America’s poor. Whether or not your school district is well off is not the issue. Poverty in the U.S. is a national disgrace. It deserves understanding and compassion and a call to action from school leaders who are well-positioned to influence public opinion.

School leaders carry powerful voices and own bully pulpits from which to demand that poverty be addressed by our elected officials. In the words of Confucius: “In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of.”