There are many programs out there may benefit the education of poor children. Right now, the Federal government provides some funds to educate children in the public school system only. Often times, parents in poverty do not like the level of education their child is receiving, and they want to have the government help them pay to send their children to a private school to get a better education. The Federal government does not provide any funding to educate poor children in private schools. So many parents are forming organizations that put pressure on their state's government to provide funding. Wisconsin is one state that parents are pushing for better education of children who are in poverty. A

Children in poverty make up thirty-nine percent of the population, and most of these children do not receive a good education because their parents cannot afford to send them to anything but a public school. Many things that can be done to improve education, but there is not enough being done right now to help these children. If society does not do anything now to help the education of disadvantaged children, society will have to pay dearly for their mistakes later.

...Help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by improving the educational opportunities of the Nation's low-income families by integrating early childhood education, adult literacy or adult basic education, and parenting education into a unified family literacy program...The program shall (1) be implemented through cooperative projects that build on existing community resources to create a new range of services; (2) promote achievement of the National Education Goals; and (3) assist children and adults from low-income families to achieve to challenging State content standards and challenging State student performance standards (The even start program: Legislation and administration).

Ethnicity and environment are two very important characteristics in the education children who are poor receive. African American children do not do as well on cognitive tests, than Anglo-American children do. Later on, African American children are more likely to repeat a grade or even drop out of school. There are many reasons why there is an ethnic difference, but the main reasons have to do with family structure and poverty (Brooks-Gunn, Klebanov, & Duncan, 1996). A study was done on 800 African American children and 800 Anglo-American children between the birth and five years of age. "The study strongly suggests that economic and learning environments of the home are the most powerful predictors of racial IQ differences in five year-olds," said Brooks-Gunn (Brooks-Gunn, Klebanov, & Duncan, 1996). Persistent poverty was found to be a key factor in the differences in IQ scores. This study also took into account how impoverished neighborhood conditions, and environmental influences can affects children who are not even in poverty. Often, African-American families live in impoverished neighborhoods, even if they are not more. Almost half of the African American children in this study lived in an impoverished neighborhood, whereas only ten percent of the Anglo-American children lived in impoverished neighborhoods. This study also measured other factors that are associated with poverty in minority children, including single parents, parents who have a low-education level, unemployed parents, and young parents (Tremmel & Rosen). Another study showed revealed that there are strong links between a family's income and their child's IQ scores. Researchers also did a study to determine if difference is academic performances in children were attributed to a difference is behavior and attitudes among families. The researchers concluded that differences in family behavior and attitudes had a tremendous long-term effect on children's academic performances (Renchler, 1993). Cultural differences exist because of the difficulties minority children have in making sense of what is demanded of them in school, the negative impact of their lack of understanding the adults in the school, and their lack of skills at home to help the overcome differences (Early care and education for children in poverty, 1998). The education that many of these children receive is sub-standard. Low Socio-Economic Status (SES) children who live in inner cities are more likely to have educationally damaging circumstances as part of their life experiences. There are many dangers that these children face everyday, including drugs, AIDS, low-nutrition, and lead exposure. Anyone of these dangerous circumstances puts a low SES child at a greater risk for having low levels of academic achievement. Thes

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2786
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)