1. What factors can lead to poverty?
- born into it
- bad education
- bad job
- evicted
- medical bills
- living in a bad area
- family issues
- geographic location
2. Which members of our society suffer most?
- In the United States, 39 percent of African-American children and adolescents and 33 percent of Latino children and adolescents are living in poverty, which is more than double the 14 percent poverty rate for non-Latino, White, and Asian children and adolescents (Kids Count Data Center, Children in Poverty 2014)
- African American unemployment rates are typically double that of Caucasian Americans. African-American men working full-time earn only 72 percent of the average earnings of comparable Caucasian men and 85 percent of the earnings of Caucasian women (Rodgers, 2008).
- African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to attend high-poverty schools than Asian-Americans and Caucasians (National Center for Education Statistics, 2007).
- From 2000 to 2013 the dropout rate between racial groups narrowed significantly. However, high school dropout rates among Latinos remain the highest, followed by African-Americans and then Whites (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015).