Study:  Poor children are now the majority in American public schools in South, West

“We have an education system that continues to assume that most of our students are middle class and have independent resources outside the schools in order to support their education, Suitts said.  The trends and facts belie that assumption. We can’t continue to educate kids on an assumption that is 20 years out of date. We simply have to reshape our educational system.  Because they show up for kindergarten with a working vocabulary half as large as their more privileged peers, low-income children should be enrolled in quality preschool. Poor children also need more time in school with an extended day or school year, and they need health care as well as social and emotional support, he said.”