When I took a social work course in child welfare a long time ago, the author of our textbook had a section describing the way in which the conditions found in many poor neighborhoods and households interfere with a child's educational development. The mere fact of having physical discomforts which might include insufficient food and insufficient sleep at night can bring about an attitude of defeatism. In addition to physical or material disadvantages, the social environment in a poor family creates problems that seem to directly affect learning. The use of languange in poor households and how parents communicate with their children compared to middle class families is one area that was mentioned.
This book was published before Clinton signed the so-called welfare reform law which changed AFDC to TANF. According to the author, attempts to provide social services to families receving AFDC intended to help parents to become employed and self-sufficient did not meet with a high degree of success. In one study, academically-related help was provided to children with high I.Q. scores in AFDC families. Modest or limited improvement was found only in one area, language use or development.
Efforts to intervene in families where either child abuse or neglect is occurring were described as being more effective than were efforts to help poor families on welfare to become self-sufficient through having the parent become employed.
At the present time, I have the impression that is a going trend among right-wing reactionaries to criticize the poor. This is related to the Tea Party movement, if it can be called a movement as it has been funded by rich people. The rich have use for the poor to keep their taxes low by keeping resentment high. Criticizing the unemployed only serves to justify outsourcing and layoffs.
Our educational system cannot be entirely blamed for not having at least adequate outcomes in many poor, often inner-city neighborhoods. When it comes to reducing gang participation and violence, academics in social work and psychiatry and possibly in psychology and socioloogy have researched approaches which have shown some positive results.
The problems of education and the poor cannot be entirely solved with increased funding, and such increases are unlikely in most states and school districts, given the continuing recession. But there may be some methods that could help poor families with the education of their children, and could help young people to stay out of trouble.
The larger problem it seems to me is that the educational system, including to a great extent higher education, do a very poor job of educating the average, middle class person what is involved with poverty. What are the consequences of poverty on communities? Poor people know about this, but middle class and upper middle class and even most rich people don't seem to know much about it. In the early part of the 20th Century, there was a charitable movement to try and help the poor. Women were recruited to become "friendly helpers" working on behalf of aid societies. As time went on, various influences, such as the marriage counseling movement, the development and popularization of psychoanalysis, and the two world wars created a trend toward a psychologization of social problems. Therapy and self-improvement increasingly became the approach taken. The poor were thought to be suffering from psychological problems rather than a lack of money income and adequate resources and opportunities for advancement. A historian wrote a book that describes these currents and how much of what we have today in the way of practices and policies developed.
Despite the emphasis on psychiatry and psychotherapy and the federal involvement in funding mental health agencies, today, we have cutbacks in mental health services for the seriously mentally disabled, often with dire consequences. Just last week, I heard on the radio of another act of violence in Carson City which I think is in Nevada by someone who then took his own life. On the same day, there was another incident somewhere in the South.
I am not sure if social workers and educators have very many solutions that would improve the educational outcomes for many poor children. The author of my textbook pointed out that the term "culturally deprived" was found to be objectionable by many, because it makes it seem as if just because someone is of a certain racial or ethnic background, that means that their cultural background is inherently inferior to the white mainstream culture, so-called, even though there is as higher proportion (but not higher number) of poor minorities. Poverty, however, does involve deprevation. Our educational system has cut back instruction in everything from music to civics in many schools, but I am not sure that it has done anything like an adequate job for many years to provide knowledge about the downside of our economic system, with its ever-widening gap between the richest and the poorest, and the decline of middle class incomes, and also, the sociological realties of poverty.
In a neighboring state, I just read that there is a cash assistance program which is now being limited to a maximum of four years of lifetime assistance for so-called able-bodied individuals. The state, which is one with a Republican governor, has experienced a loss of jobs, and the administration claims that it cannot afford to continue the payments indefinitely. All along, disabled people, who are often unemployed and have low incomes, could apply for the cash assistance program and could receive the help indefinitely, for as long as they were in need and were eligible. This policy will continue so that disabled residents of this state can still receive financial assistance long-term and permanently, if need be. In my state, there is no cash assistance program There is only "poor relief" doled out by local politicians known as Township Trustees. These trustees are not professional case workers. They usually require that recipients perform some menial work in return for the limited assistance that is granted, and they certainly do not have the funding or qualifications to provide long-term help for disabled citizens. Disability agencies only help a limited number of clients who meet their criteria, leaving out disabled people who do not fit into their programs. On this site, there are people who post about Social Security. These people never disclose exactly why they are so interested in this program. Some obviously have bought the right-wing anti-government nonsense. Whatever the case, my textbook author states that although Social Security is well thought of by most Americans and has helped many people while also helping the economy by providing people with a certain amount of income, the benefits are inadequate to keep up with expenses. This is also true of the SSI program, which is also administered by the Social Security Administration. An expert by the name of Wilbur Cohen is quoted who points out that it takes more than one program to provide the necessary level of help that an individual or family may need. In my state, there is an unwillingness to understand what the professor is saying about the need to supplement Social Security with another form of income, be it part-time employment or a cash assistance program. As time goes on, it seems that inflation will continue. The future of poor people, including those on a fixed income, is in doubt. The schools through their curriculum seem to assume that everyone who attends school will graduate and will go on to become middle class. That is an unrealistic picture of reality presented by an institution that is supposed to be in the knowledge, information, truth-seeking business.