Post #23,799
1/10/02 4:37:30 PM
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~48% of Cambridge, Mass lives in poverty
Or at least that's what one can conclude from this:
[link|http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,42694,00.html|Fox News story]
"To determine how segregated the schools are by income, Cambridge officials looked at how many children in each elementary school are enrolled in free lunch programs. The citywide average per school is about 48 percent, but in some schools the rate was as low as 20 percent and in others as high as 88 percent, Superintendent Bobbie D'Alessandro said."
Free lunch programs are supposed to be for the poor. I've been through Cambridge--it didn't look very poor to me. I don't believe for a moment that there are that many poor families living in Cambridge, Mass.
I wonder if this is representative of the general state of welfare programs. The ones that require my taxes to keep rising every year.
Brian Bronson
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Post #23,803
1/10/02 4:55:34 PM
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define poor
with one wife and four kids and a gross income of 38,500.00 My kids would qualify for free lunches. Now if I dont qual I pay for the 3 kids in school 40.00 per week total thats about 180 a month. Bag lunches? Remember temp in a locker is about 90 degree's so sandwich sog would become a problem. Now if I made 38,600 a year that would put me over the limit but paying 2,160 a year would put a huge dent in the budget. Dont begrudge kids a free meal when there is so much other govt waste, of course 38,600 a year makes a family wealthy according to the democrats so either way the middle class is screwed.
thanx,
bill
My Dreams aren't as empty as my conscience seems to be
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Post #23,805
1/10/02 5:05:20 PM
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Temperatures in lockers?
90 degrees? Holy cow, are the lockers located right next to a steam heating line? No way, except at the beginning and ending of the school year in non-air conditioned schools. I lived on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches until high school, where they had hot lunches available - and even then sometimes I'd take my lunch anyway to avoid the long lines. And I never went to an air conditioned school, and we walked uphill both ways barefoot in the snow, and ....
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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Post #23,811
1/10/02 5:12:51 PM
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lockers are located outside the classrooms in unreefered air
My Dreams aren't as empty as my conscience seems to be
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Post #23,814
1/10/02 5:26:59 PM
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And?
I never went to an air conditioned school, and the hallways outside the classroom were lined with lockers. Sounds like the scenario you're describing. Unless there's something really weird going on there, except for early school year and late school year when outside temperatures get to 80 or 90, 90 degrees still sounds awful hot, even if you have a locker near the ceiling. (We had two-tier lockers - one set two or three feet high, a divider, the next set another two or three feet. I had upper-tier lockers a few times.)
And even then, bagged lunches were edible. In grade school, there was no option - there was no cafeteria, no food served. If they had a poverty program back then, those kids got sandwiches and cookies-n-stuff just like the rest of us brought to school.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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Post #23,821
1/10/02 5:39:43 PM
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the average temp in Sofla in Sept is 89+
humidity just as high. The classrooms have doors from a covered open to the air walkway which houses lockers. I never had hot lunches as a kid either, also remember kids eating a boiled potato for lunch or a couple of carrots stolen from a garden. I never have seen any virtue in letting kids go hungry, it might be the only meal he gets since his parent blew the welfare money on drugs, etc.
thanx,
bill
who doesnt think catsup qualifies as a vegetable.
My Dreams aren't as empty as my conscience seems to be
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Post #23,804
1/10/02 4:59:57 PM
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The schools have no incentive to turn it away
Part of the problem is that the schools not only have no incentive to turn away money to be spent, but they are actively encouraged by the welfare bueaurocrats to put more students into these programs.
I also find it hard to believe that this many people can't at least put together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some cookies for their kids' lunch. On the other hand, I can very well believe that there might be this many people who, with a free lunch available, won't bother with the effort.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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Post #23,807
1/10/02 5:08:16 PM
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Re: ~48% of Cambridge, Mass lives in poverty
Your extrapolation has a flaw. For one thing, you are forgetting the private and parochial schools which probably have a significant portion of the students.
As a college student I lived in the Peoples Republic of Cambridge over 40 years ago. Back then, if you got off the main streets you would see plenty evidence of poverty. Students losing a bicycle, or parts there of, by theft to the Cambridge urchins was a very common occurrence.
Alex
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
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