Education, Secondary

Poverty is the most influential variable in academic success. In the United States, one in five students are living in poverty, with the greatest incidence of poverty in the South and the least in the Northeast. Poverty rates are three times higher for African American and Hispanic students. The number of all students who live in poverty has grown to 22 percent nationally, and while education spending has skyrocketed, it is not proportional to the growth rate of students living in poverty. In fact, states with the highest poverty rates have the lowest amount of per pupil expenditure, with the exception of the District of Columbia, which has a higher incidence of students with disabilities eliciting more funding.

In the United States and internationally, students living ...