People for Education

©People for Education 2012

© Roshni Sopariwalla© Christina Martin©Dylan Mackin©Cristina Miclat

What is Poverty?� Poverty is defined as: “the state of one who lacks a

usual or socially acceptable amount of money of material possessions”

� Basically, poverty is the state of being extremely poor

� A few of the consequences of poverty include homelessness, hunger, and poor health.

� A homeless person is defined as a person who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night time residence. This includes those who live in shelters, cars, campgrounds, motels, and people who share a home with others.

What Causes Poverty?� The main cause for poverty is a lack of education

� Research has shown that the lack of a high school diploma is directly associated with homelessness for individuals and families

� People drop out of school for various reasons including, but not limited to: trying to get a job to help provide for their family, substance abuse, lack of motivation, and lack of money.

� But school is very important for children especially because it is a place of safety, structure, and opportunity in life. Especially when life at home is bad, going to school is even more necessary so that children can be motivated to one day attempt to leave the cycle of poverty and misery.

Drop Outs� “22% of public high school students will drop out in

California”

� “When examined through the lenses of reading skills and poverty . . . It was found that poor children account for 70% of the kids who don’t graduate.”

� Dropouts are more likely to face poverty according to the US Census Bureau.

� Typically high school dropouts earn $19,000 a year while high school graduates earn $28,000

� Also, sixty-eight percent of prison inmates are high school dropouts.

What Do We Propose?

� We propose that there needs to be more activities and shorter school days to keep students in poverty (and students in all economic classes) motivated to pursue their education. To allow for equal education for all we demand that all public schools have equal funding and adult schools for those adults who want to complete their high school education.

� Many students today say they feel disengaged in school and almost like a separate entity from the student body. Therefore we should allow students to be more involved in school programs

� For example, all sports should have an intramural aspect as well. Those kids who do not make JV or Varsity school teams, should not be told to play somewhere else or to wait till next year. Instead there should be a group which also gets the opportunity to compete with other students from other schools and get time to bond with their schoolmates on a slightly less competitive level.

� There should also be all school programs and activities more often so that students can get feel a closer connection to their school

Propositions: Equal Funding� There needs to be equal funding for all public

schools. Public schools are currently funded by taxes of the nearby area. Therefore, upper class areas have better funding for their public schools where lower class areas have more inadequate funding for their public schools. Additionally, a lot of public schools are starting to be judged based upon their standardized testing scores.

� Consequently a negative cycle is forming for those schools which are not doing that well. Firstly the students are not doing well. Therefore their school is not being funded adequately. Thus the required resources to help the students improve is not being provided. And once again, the students do not do well and their schools receive less money.

More Propositions� Additionally, schools could have shorter school days

but less breaks because research proves that it is beneficial to focus for a short span of time in order to absorb as much information as possible, rather than sitting for more time trying to cram information into tired minds.

� We also believe that there should be more adult schools available. This program would benefit adults who dropped out of high school or college and would like the opportunity to earn a diploma and a degree. By doing this, adults do not have to suffer through poverty because of bad decisions they made when they were younger but can instead focus on mending and improving upon their life.

Why Is A Diploma Important?� Finding a career that pays well is hard without

a diploma.

� “On average, a high school graduate earns $9,367 more each year than a high school drop out does” and that amount of money could make a huge difference in a person’s life.

� Also, without a diploma you are not as marketable to employers who are searching for employees.

� It is estimated that “at least half of all welfare recipients do not possess a high school diploma”, solid proof that those with diplomas are doing remarkably better.

What Does a Diploma Do For You?

� Years ago, many relatively high paying jobs did not require a diploma, but today most jobs above the fast food industry do require a high school diploma.

� Nine of every ten jobs in the USA require a college degree even after the high school diploma.

� People who pursue education and receive their diploma are half as likely to get divorced and be a single parent.

� People without a diploma make about $1.5 million less in their life.

In Conclusion� Poverty has a large effect

on our society and the quality of life for everyone in the United States of America.

� To end poverty we propose shorter school days, equal funding, intramural sports, and adult schools.

� We need to Make Poverty History