Children of Massachusetts in poverty

BOSTON, Mass. (AP) -- "You can't do well in school when you are hungry," said Velazquez, 50, who takes care of 11 children between the ages of 2 and 11 by herself in her Boston home. She relies on food pantries to help feed them.

"They go through a lot they should not have to go through," Velazquez says of her five biological children and six other children in her custody. "There is really a lot of stress around here."

She and her children are not alone in their struggle.

One in every four children lives in poverty in 16 of the state's school districts, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In Holyoke, half of the school children live in poverty. More than 40 percent of children in Chelsea, Lawrence and Springfield, and more than 30 percent in Boston, Lowell, New Bedford, Wellfleet and Worcester also live in poverty, according to the bureau.

The estimated number of poor children, ages 5 to 17, are based on the 1990 census and 1997 county poverty and population figures and are particularly uncertain for smaller population areas.

The estimates are used by the federal Education Department to allocate Title I funds, federal money that is distributed to schools to provide extra academic support and programs for underperforming schools in high-poverty areas.

The agency defines a family of four as poor if its total annual income is less than $17,029. That drops to $13,290 for a family of three and $10,869 for a two-person family.

The lowest poverty estimates--of less than one-half of 1 percent, were recorded in the school districts of Gosnold, Hampshire, Bedford, and Holliston.

Food is just one of things children in poverty worry about, said Kathy Skinner, who has been on the front lines in some of the state's poorest school districts.

Now director of the Massachusetts Teachers Association's center for educational quality, Skinner has worked as a teacher and administrator in Somerville, Gloucester and Lawrence.

Food, clothing, shelter and security are more important than school for poorer children, she said.

"If you have children who don't know what they are going to eat or where they are going to sleep, they don't particularly care about algebra," she said.

Some of the highest poverty rates were on Cape Cod.

Edward Tynan, acting superintendent of the Dennis-Yarmouth schools, said there is a "hidden population" on the Cape-- not the more affluent seasonal visitors. His district had a 25.2 percent poverty rate.

Cape school districts Falmouth, Brewster and Eastham also had poverty rates around 20 percent.

The Cape's year-round working class residents have trouble making ends meet where rents are out of reach for part of the year, and there are few other housing options.

"A lot of families rent in the winter, then in the summer when the rents go up, they are placed in motels, which makes for a very transient population," Tynan said. "When you move from school to school, it's difficult to maintain the continuity of your education."