More Wisconsin children are living in poverty and qualifying for free and reduced school lunches, according to new figures from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Read about the 6.8% increase in eligibility for free/reduced lunches in this release from DPI. The map also released by DPI found here is especially important to see. Milwaukee is highlighted in red, showing it is one of few districts in the state that have a rate of 70% or more. The rate in MPS is over 82%.
Our legislators should see this as more evidence that public education needs more support and not less. Families growingly rely on their child's school for basic help, such as food service. Also more districts now have high enough poverty rates to make them eligible for state poverty aids, meaning those poverty aids will have to stretch further.
In line with this talk about food for children, we helped celebrate National School Breakfast Week with an event this morning at Milwaukee Sign Language School. No media attended, despite our outreach. We have a clip of video from the event, though, thanks to MPS Communications. You can see it here.
