Fix poverty to fix education

I was very disappointed that you singled out two schools to make your point about poverty and student achievement (“Test scores diverge on Spokane campuses,” Nov. 2).

The teachers and staff at both Hamblen and Audubon are highly committed professionals that bring similar skills and expertise to their classrooms. Hamblen, with half the poverty rate, is celebrating their recognition of hard work with outstanding student achievement scores, while the Audubon staff is now demoralized by the fact their same hard work has earned them public notoriety as a low-performing school.

The article sends the wrong message to the public and parents about the quality of education at Audubon School and high poverty schools in general. Students living in poverty have consistently struggled to perform as well as their higher socioeconomic peer group. The work in low socioeconomic schools is challenging and many of these schools in the Spokane area are breathing a sigh of relief that their school was not highlighted in your article.

High poverty schools in particular have become the largest social service agency in our country where they feed, provide day care, school supplies, clothing, counseling and many more services beyond their primary mission of educating students. If we fix poverty, we fix education!

Mike McGinnis

Spokane