Wanted: Hungry kids

The number of public school students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals is a poverty rate indicator – a sign of how many families in a community are struggling to make ends meet.

But for schools, the number means much more. Federal funding for programs such as Title I remedial reading programs is tied to the number of students who register for the federal meal program. While a drop in the number of registrants means more families are financially stable, it can also eliminate funding for school programs considered to be great benefits to students.

No one knows this better than Pete Knittle, principal of Skyway Elementary School in Coeur d’Alene.

Skyway has received Title I dollars since it opened in 2000, but fewer Skyway families registered for the meal program this year. The number is hovering just above the federal requirement of 35 percent of the school’s 615 students. About a week ago, the registration had dipped to 34 percent – low enough to threaten the jobs of the Title I reading teacher and her assistants.

The school’s past two newsletters included a note from Knittle asking parents to study the lunch program requirements and sign up if they qualify. At least one parent took issue with this, calling it “not the school’s place” to advertise what he said is essentially a government welfare program.

“They’re basically begging people to apply for government aid,” said Kale Lowman, a parent of a Skyway student.

School officials aren’t hesitant to admit that they promote the meal program. They say it’s important for families to know about the service, and it’s out of their hands that the federal government ties the program to Title I funding meant to give disadvantaged schools and students a boost.

“That’s nothing that we have control over,” Knittle said. “We’re just trying to connect kids with the services they qualify for.”

Lowman said he understands the school feels pressure because of the potential loss of funds. But he said that highlights the general problem with government support programs: People become dependent on them and don’t want to try to do without the extra help.

Lowman also said the program is based on the stereotype that lower-income people struggle academically.

“Do poor people have more trouble reading? Is the government trying to make that inference there?” Lowman said.

Eric Earling, a spokesman for the U.S Department of Education, said that traditionally, poorer students do have more trouble in school.

Coeur d’Alene School District officials talk frequently at public meetings about the success the district has had in closing the achievement gap between low-income students and affluent ones. The Title I reading program, in place at eight of the 10 Coeur d’Alene elementary schools, has helped tremendously, district Superintendent Harry Amend said.

“Probably, I would say, (it has helped) at every school district in the country,” Amend said.

Whether students use the reading program has nothing to do with their enrollment in free and reduce-priced meals; it’s based entirely on their reading skills. So a school still may have a need for reading assistance even if less than 35 percent of students qualify for the meal program.

In Sandpoint, a decrease in Title I funds to the Lake Pend Oreille School District meant schools with lower numbers of kids in the meal program saw cuts.

Washington Elementary, where 40 percent of students are in the meal program, lost all its Title 1 funding this year because the district needed the money for schools with far more students in the program.

“We have to do everything on a formula basis that shows we serve the highest-needs schools by poverty and priority rank,” said Judy Hull, director of the Title I program for the district.

Washington Elementary is raising money in the community to help make up for the lost funds – something Skyway would consider if it loses federal funding.

As of Monday, about 37 percent of Skyway students had signed up, a decline from last year’s 43 percent, but still enough to keep the school eligible for Title I funds – for now.

About 150 Skyway students – roughly 25 percent of the student population – get help from the school’s Title I teacher and assistants.

“It’s helped scores of children become better readers,” Knittle said. “We would have to find other ways somehow of meeting the needs of those kids” if federal funding was cut.