TERRE HAUTE —
Life away from the classroom affects a student’s ability to learn.
That point was worth a few extra moments of consideration last week as Vigo County schools opened the 2012-13 year. Educators working in Indiana public schools have experienced intense scrutiny and change as a result of reforms enacted by state officials. Policies governing the operation, funding, and compensation practices inside schools have been overhauled in the name of better learning opportunities for Hoosier children.
Such legislation does not address a particularly influential factor in education — the home life of a student. This community should understand that component of the learning equation better than most others in Indiana.
The Commission on Childhood Poverty, created by state legislators through Public Law 131-2009, met monthly in the latter half of 2011, conducted town forums around Indiana, and produced a comprehensive summary, “Childhood Poverty: Indiana’s Emergency Report and Recommendations.” The commission found that Vigo County had the state’s highest poverty rate for residents under age 18 at 28.7 percent. That’s higher than two of the largest metropolitan areas — Marion County (home of Indianapolis) and Lake County (home of Gary). Another poverty calculation released this month, Kids Count, put Vigo’s rate slightly lower.
Those are statistics, though. Many folks see the numbers and wonder what a 28.7-percent child poverty rate looks like in real life.
Well, here goes …
Those under-privileged children probably live in families without health insurance or child care. The commission calculated that 116,000 Hoosier kids are not covered by health insurance. Also, the No. 1 barrier to steady employment for low-income families in Indiana is a lack of affordable, reliable child care; thus, a parent of small children may be unable to work. Young people living in an unstable housing situation, or even homelessness, also face greater struggles with school work, family conflict, abuse, neglect, mental-health and behavior problems, and physical health issues, according to the commission report. And, yes, there are homeless families in Terre Haute.
Intervention by a community, to help reduce obstacles kids face, makes a difference. The long-term dividends of easing poverty include young adults working in career-oriented jobs, owning homes, avoiding a life of crime, and staying off welfare and other forms of public assistance.
Every step in that effort matters. An encouraging announcement emerged from the Vigo County School Corporation’s rally Monday to kick off the school year. A “food backpack program,” initiated a few years ago at Terre Haute North Vigo High School, will operate corporation-wide in 2012-13. Students will be able to pick up nutritious food each Friday, and carry the items home in their backpacks. Fundraisers within the corporation schools will raise money for the food, which will be purchased through the VCSC food services department.
The potential impact is great. More than half of all Vigo County students receive free or reduced-price lunches, and that percentage has risen steadily in recent years — 46.2 in 2007, 47.8 (2008), 48.9 (2009), 51.5 (2010), 51.6 (2011), and 54 this year. In 2000, 35 percent of Vigo kids received such assistance.
If that extra food — a couple more weekend meals — gives motivation to study to just a handful, a dozen, or maybe a hundred kids, Terre Haute will become a better place for them, and all of us, to live.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: Reducing obstacles to learning makes big difference for kids
Special efforts are needed in Vigo County
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The celebration season
Spring has been a bit elusive at times in 2013, which is its nature.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: MVC tourney an event worth having
It’s been a long time since the Missouri Valley Conference chose Indiana State University to host its post-season baseball tournament, but Terre Haute had never been more prepared for an event such as this.
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EDITORIAL: Cleaning up voter rolls
It’s not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the $2 million designated in the recent session of the General Assembly will begin the messy but necessary process of cleaning up Indiana’s voter registration rolls.
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EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
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EDITORIAL: Good news for downtown
For decades, it seems, downtown Terre Haute has been in the throes of change
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EDITORIAL: Overall, state budget step in the right direction
For average Hoosiers uninterested in political point-scoring, the budget crafted by the Indiana Legislature inspires only muted, if any, fanfare.
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EDITORIAL: The lessons of organ donation
The range of emotion surrounding life-saving transplantation of a vital organ is extreme. It is the ultimate “good news-bad news” scenario.
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READERS’ FORUM: April 26, 2013
• Pence’s tax cuts benefit wealthiest
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
This does not qualify as a surprise in any way. But the Wabash Valley’s response to widespread flooding of recent days has been nothing short of impressive, even inspirational.
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EDITORIAL: Still waiting for the jobs reward
The forces in control of Indiana government for most of the past decade need to show some results to Hoosiers in one primary category.
Good-paying jobs. -
MARK BENNETT: Littered with irony: Why do people callously discard their trash, and who are they?
Though they aren’t acknowledged by the U.S. Census Bureau, there are basically two demographic groups of people … Those who would dump their old toilet on the banks of the Wabash River or a rural roadside. And those who wouldn’t.
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EDITORIAL: Doing the dirty work to clean up tossed trash
A first-of-its-kind, coast-to-coast project to remove litter from U.S. roadsides brought the Pick Up America crew through the Wabash Valley two years ago.
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EDITORIAL: Keep school security a local issue
The decision to provide armed security inside a schoolhouse should be made locally.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
Indiana’s parks need your help.
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EDITORIAL: The return of terror
Emotions today remain strong and raw in wake of Monday’s terror bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
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EDITORIAL: A solution to distracted driving … stop it … now
You’ve got to stop. You know you do it. It’s a miracle you haven’t caused a tragedy already.
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EDITORIAL: ‘Women of Influence’: 2013 selectees have given much to their communities
For the second year, United Way of the Wabash Valley has teamed up with local sponsors to select and honor a group of women who have made outstanding contributions to their communities, professions and families.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: A new honor for our veterans
A commendation goes out today to state Rep. Clyde Kersey, a Terre Haute Democrat who led the charge this week in the Indiana House of Representatives to pay tribute to the nation’s Purple Heart recipients.
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EDITORIAL: Shifting view on marriage
One could argue, as many have, that Sen. Joe Donnelly did the right thing last week when he dropped his support of government-sanctioned opposition to same-sex marriage. It wasn’t a radical move, considering most Democrats have now made the switch.
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MAX JONES: The American Newspaper: Changing? Yes. Dying? No way!
It happened again this past January when all those “looking at the year ahead” stories started popping up on Internet “news” websites and broadcast “news” programs. Under a provocative headline reading something like “Five industries/businesses doomed to tank in the coming year,” there it was, a prediction based on an unsubstantiated “expert” analysis that the newspaper industry will continue in 2013 to suffer its slide into oblivion.
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EDITORIAL: A chance to change our bad cultural habits
The sight of diligent, eager young people dragging trash out of the Wabash River wetlands is both inspiring and sad.
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EDITORIAL: Maintaining high standards
Standards
It’s the raging buzzword in education circles these days. Everyone insists that higher standards must be met. Anything less is, doggone it, unacceptable. -
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