Posted on 12/16/2014 6:18:15 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The odds are stacked against low-income Americans seeking the education they need to move up.
Chelsey Stone had already escaped so many of the traps that keep poor children in poverty for life. She recalls begging neighbors for dinner when her mother sold their food stamps for drug money. She slept on the trampoline outside when the heroin showed up and her mom locked the door and the binges began. When she rebelled as a teenager, it was with poster board: She plastered her house with bright signs warning, “Do Not Throw Needles Away Here.”
Her teachers saw that spark. You can earn a college scholarship, they said. Land a good job, and don’t depend on the government or anyone else. She knew they were right. She was almost there.
Then she got pregnant. Then she was 17, working two jobs to feed herself and her daughter, Kiara. She started college and tried to carry a full load of classes, and it was too much. She dropped out. And there went her chance at the middle class, racing away across the plains.
“Where I was from, everyone was like, ‘She’s going to be like her mom.’ And I was like, ‘No, I’m not,’ ” Stone said. But when the baby came, “I couldn’t keep it up.”
The American economy has stopped working the way it used to for millions of Americans. The path from poverty to the middle class has changed — now, it runs through higher education.
In 1965, a typical man whose education stopped after four years of high school earned a salary 15 percent higher than the median male worker.
By 2012, a high-school-only grad was earning 20 percent less than the median.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The applications are disgustingly long.
But liberals say marriage isn’t important. They’ve been busying themselves dismantling traditional marriage laws and pushing gay marriage up the wazoo.
Why the heck are they surprised we have an underclass? Our biggest problem isn’t financial, that they’re poor; no, our biggest problem is cultural, related to the destruction of the traditional family and the contempt the culture has for marriage, which keeps people in poverty.
Beau has had 14 Foster kids through his home over the past 20 years, mainly teen boys, as Beau is an awesome example of what a hard-working, successful, caring, compassionate MAN should be. (I’m not biased, of course!)
Anyhow, of those 14 kids, one of the boys is a semi-success; he only calls about once a year for money at this point. He’s in his 30’s and works menial jobs and will for life.
A good half of the other boys are in prison, or dead from drug use, or fatal car accidents.
The only girl that made it through high school is now also in her 30’s and is on Baby #3 with Baby Daddy #3. She has been given EVERY opportunity you could imagine; squandered them all.
The home lives these kids came from in the first place is what sets the tone. Hardly any of them make it out alive, or end up being self-supporting and productive in any way, shape or form. And that’s with a LOT of help and opportunities and guidance on how one SHOULD live their life and being held to task along the way.
Yep. Dems have done a GREAT job destroying the American Family and making people dependent upon Mother Government. Sure wish our side could find a way to reverse that and make every person a success.
Most days, I fear it’s a lost cause.
There. Fixed it.
um... who said that she has to go to college full time? go part time...
that said, too many people view college as a panecea to the good life. it isn’t. and the rising costs make it more of a gamble each year.
a lot of people arent’ college material.
but then again, i know a lot of people in the trades who make more than a college grad...
Her name isn’t Lakeesha; it’s Chelsey. Did you just make her an honorary black girl? And she is working. She’s likely getting food stamps, and there’s some government subsidy for her utility bills, but she is working and getting out of the hole she put herself in.
Look, have I been paying for her kid from day one or not? I’m glad she’s digging her way out, using a shovel I paid for.
The bias of the article is every one needs or wants to go to college.
There is no mention of the value of a vocational education, of schooling that gives young people practical life and job skills.
We don’t invest in making that possible because of our obsession with a four year liberal arts college degree and we’re short-changing our children and denying them an opportunity to choose what’s best for their future.
Then again, its easy to rail against poverty and say all we need is to push young people into college when it may not be right for all of them.
This is where the article's pity argument for more socialism ends.
What's not mentioned is "Community College". Or maybe it was - like I said, the article isn't well written .....
Someone like the subject of the article - not well-educated, from an unsupportive home - would be well-suited to some remedial work, I'd think. Getting a basic education, then learning a trade so that she could get a decent job and get herself out of the terrible rut that she was in - would be a good start.
Then ..... college. If it's necessary. It might not be, if she could make a decent living with basic tools.
But, that's just my opinion.
That sounds like heaven actually. When I got a job, my first act was to put myself through a lot of these types of courses at the local college just to function, the degree I earned for that was an associate’s.
To me, the real college trap today is that kids are brainwashed into thinking that they HAVE to have a college education in order to survive.
Truth is, the Obama economy has wrecked the chances of upward mobility even for college educated people.
So, you get a hundred thousand in student loans, get through college, and join the unemployment line.
Why? Because your government just got a boatload more H-1B’s and gave amnesty to 5,000,000 illegal trespassers.
I think a big part of the problem is that most courses and textbooks repeat themselves and are packed with so much extraneous nonsense that they will put you right to sleep. When I was in college stumbling across an old textbook from the 50s was like finding a trove of treasure, those people knew how to hold your attention and explain things.
Their lives should be as "ruined" as the mothers. They should be forced to provide support to their offspring and if they are unemployed, they should be literally put on work gangs (picking up trash on highways, cleaning graffitti, etc.) until they get regular jobs again.
Having no accountability for fathers is driving the problem of illegitimate children.
So many will kill you as soon as look at you. Look at that one guy in Pennsylvania who murdered his ex and four generations of her family. That was over child support, apparently.
actually I have observed an actual discouragement of informing fathers. There have been multiple cases of where the father is actually known but is never informed in order for an adoption lawyer to profit from the adoption process.
Feminists will tell young mothers a father is a hindrance not an asset. Asking for child support is to invite (gasp!) visitation demands and (double gasp!) shared parental responsibility. As opposed to complete control.
One consequence of our 25 year experiment with one-sided free trade is the loss of decent paying hourly manufacturing jobs. These jobs provided a ladder for motivated poor people to climb out of poverty through hard work. Low skilled entry level factory workers received training and had the opportunity to work their way up into higher paying hourly jobs or even supervisory and administrative jobs. When I entered the workforce in the 1970’s many of my coworkers in administrative and management jobs had started on the factory floor out of high school and had worked their way up without a college education. Some of the women had been single mothers. In today’s world those people would be trapped in the poverty cycle.
Low skilled factory jobs are gone today thanks to the decisions made to lower tariffs and export those jobs in the 1990’s. We enjoy the benefit of paying fifty cents less for a T-shirt at Wal-Mart, or $2.00 less for a toaster, because it is made in China instead of the US. Unfortunately we pay much more to the federal and state governments in taxes to support social programs required to support those who cannot find jobs in our 21st century service economy. Consider also governments earn less in tax receipts due to the inability of our economy to provide private sector jobs for over 90 million working age Americans. Meanwhile the average household income in this country continues to decline, our national debt rises, and the countries who subsidize their industries and control imports into their markets prosper.
The United States became the leading industrial nation in the world during the period 1865 to 1900. We had high tariffs during that period, yet the economy boomed, creating the modern day middle class. After 25 years of the modern free trade experiment, and the resulting deindustrialization of our economy, we see no evidence of economic prosperity. In fact, we’ve seen China become the largest manufacturing economy while enjoying the same kind of economic growth and prosperity the USA used to have.
We can either raise tariffs and rebuild the US manufacturing economy or we can continue down the current road and become another third world hell hole. Government jobs and service jobs will not employ 90 million of our fellow citizens.
Raise tariffs on imported goods, thereby creating an incentive to build factories in this country. I’ll gladly pay fifty cents more for a t-shirt and $2.00 more for a toaster because it will give unskilled American people without college degrees a real opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty and government dependency.
Who is Beau? I would assume it’s your husband, but you say “through HIS home...”
This foster care thing (I have no experience) sounds like a nightmare. I can’t imagine involving my life with so many people who come to such ends. It would break my heart, and that’s a term I don’t believe I’ve ever used.
The main premise of the article is standard Marxism: rich and middle-class against the poor. “If only the poor had more money” and “isn’t it unfair that the poor have these forces against them?” But the article ignores other factors that are even more important than money. Having a child out of wedlock at an early age is the biggest negative factor. It starts a new cycle of poverty. But getting pregnant is a result of a behavioral choice, (unless one is raped and conceives as a result of it) that you can’t blame on the level of family income. The truth is, that if a poor young person with strong motivation to study and work hard wants to go to college, there is plenty of money available from the government and scholarships. They will easily qualify for the government grants. As for scholarships, the number available for poor minorities and those with “hard luck” stories is substantial. Those who are from middle-class homes will find far less available for them. They are expected to take out student loans that will in many cases take them decades to pay off.
Another factor that the article essentially neglects: family and cultural attitudes towards education. Families and cultures that place education as a priority, regardless of how much money they have will give their children an educational benefit that will help them succeed.
College Education Mythology....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.