Opinion: What’s it like for students in poverty? Teen describes voices ‘telling you to quit’ – By Rhonda Cagle (AZ Central) / Aug 22 2021
In 2019, my family lost our home and had to move into a hotel room. If not for a government safety net, I wouldn’t have made it to graduation.
If you want facts and stats about poverty’s impacts on Arizona’s high school students, consult Google. What you need instead is the voice of a recent high school graduate I’ll call “Annabelle.”
Please listen to her closely and carefully. In her voice, you’ll hear the echo of more than 300,000 other voices of Arizona students living in poverty.
School is hard. Poverty makes it harder
School is a hard thing for many students, but how hard is it for students in poverty? I can’t answer that question for every impoverished student, but I can tell you my experience of how poverty has affected me, my education and my family.
Money has always been a problem for my family. We’ve never had enough to buy the things we need. But it wasn’t until the last couple of years that money became a huge problem.
