To be crystal clear, the researchers were not analyzing poverty rates per se. Rather, they tracked at the percentage of children in each state who received free or reduced school lunches, which are only available to students whose families earn below 185 percent of the poverty line. For a family of four, that amounted to about $41,000 in 2011—a figure that might feel dire in New York City, but less so in New Mexico. In the end, we are talking about families poor enough to get for some amount of federal food help.
More troubling than the strict number of low-income students, however, was the long-term trend. As I noted up above, the number of states handing out cheap and free meals to more than half their students quadrupled in ten years, a point that this Washington Post illustration hammers home vividly. American public school students are becoming poorer.
The reasons why are both complicated and familiar. In an interview with the Post, one of the study’s authors pointed to the “2008 recession, immigration and a high birthrate among low-income families,” as factors. The changes were happening before the economy collapsed, but the bust exacerbated them.
I think there are a few quick points to take away from these numbers.