The Sunday edition of the Democrat & Chronicle has two stories on its front page that are, and are not, related.
No Time to Wait talks about the interim superintendent of the Rochester City School District and the challenges he faces. The paper printed a set of statistics as part of its headline which it pulled from Census Bureau reports.
56% of the families in the district are headed by women with no husbands.
51% of families headed by women live in poverty.
36% of all families live in poverty.
21% of the city’s population over 25 did not graduate from high school.
Dozens Witness Fatal Attack tells the story of the 39th homicide in the City this year. A woman was stabbed to death by several other women, in broad daylight, at a major intersection in the city.
These are related and unrelated. On the face of it, violence has no direct connection to the school district. On closer examination, it does.
One of the only ways for a person to lift himself / herself out of poverty is education. Only 56% of the District’s students graduate. The latest drop out rate is 8.7%.
Violence in the city is mainly related to gang or drug activity, two of the ways that poor people cope with their situation. Education is a last resort. That has to change if the pockets of poverty and violence in Rochester are ever going to change.
