Get Short Shrift in Today s Education Debate By Gerald Bracey Presidential candidate Bill Bradley has put forth a plan to deal with child poverty, an issue that previously no politician had touched. Even the educators and governors at the recent National Education Summit were silent on the problem. But these few children are not proof, precisely because they are exceptions. Poverty is not an excuse. It is a condition that affects virtually everything.
Poor children get off to a bad start before they're born.
Their mothers are likely to get prenatal care late, if at all, which can impair later intellectual functioning. They are more than three times as likely as nonpoor children to have stunted growth. They are about twice as likely to have physical and mental disabilities, and are seven times more likely to be abused or neglected. And they are more than three times more likely to die. Poverty stifles school performance.