Number of Vernon County kids living in poverty on the rise

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

Between 2007 and 2011 the poverty rate of school age children in the Nevada R-5 school district and all but one of the surrounding districts has increased, according to information released by the U.S. Census Bureau earlier this month.

"These estimates are sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and are used as one of the criteria to allocate federal funds to local education agencies," said acting Census Bureau Director Thomas Mesenbourg. "In addition, state and local programs use these estimates for distributing funds and managing school programs."

According to the information released, the poverty rate of children between the ages of 5-17 has increased by about 11 percent in the Nevada R-5 School District, while the number of school-aged children in the district has remained largely unchanged.

In 2007 the R-5 district was estimated to have 2,691 school age children and in 2011 that had increased slightly to 2,696. During that same period, the total population of the R-5 District was estimated to have increased from 14,520 in 2007 to 15,123 in 2011.

"This is the first time since I've been here that the number of students eligible for free and reduced lunches is over 50 percent of the students," Dr. David Stephens, Nevada R-5 superintendent, told the R-5 board during a board meeting earlier this fall.

The number of students eligible for the free and reduced lunch program is an indicator of the poverty level in the school district, since a family's income level determines the eligibility of students for the program.

And Stephens added that is only the students who applied for the program. Not every student who qualifies for the program applies.

In the surrounding school districts, Northeast Vernon County is the only district to show a decrease in the estimated poverty rate between 2007 and 2011. While the estimated number of school age children in the district has increased from 334 in 2007 to 381 in 2011 the percent of students estimated to be in poverty dropped by about 12 percent.

The other surrounding school districts all show an increase in the estimated percent of children below the poverty line between 9.25 percent in Rich Hill and 36 percent in Sheldon.

According to the estimates the percentages of kids in poverty have increased in: Bronaugh, 30 percent; El Dorado Springs, 27.8 percent; Hume, 30 percent; Liberal, 14.8 percent; Rich Hill, 9.25 percent; and Sheldon, 36 percent.

According to a press release from the Census Bureau "the SAIPE uses the latest available data from the American Community Survey with aggregate data from federal tax filings, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation, statistics from the 2000 and 2010 censuses and annual population estimates."

These estimates are released annually, and the comparisons between 2007 and 2011 are significant because 2007 was the last year prior to the 2007-'09 recession.