The plight of the high school homeless

The plight of the high school homeless

This article really ticks me off because this is NOT a new problem.  It’s been going on in my school’s neighborhood for years.  I think the first case I knew of, was about 15 years ago.  Kiddio in my class was not doing well at all that year, and someone at school discovered that his mother had disappeared, father had been gone for at least a year, and he was living along in the apartment with no income.  I think the neighbors came to school and let us know, but not really sure.  It has been a long time.

But we’re always coming up with the odd student who is homeless.  Sometimes they choose to live home – usually due to family difficulties and sometimes the family leaves them.  We’ve all kinds of social services at our disposal to help – group homes, etc. 

Why?

Well, partly we care, but Texas learned long ago, the longer you keep a kid in school, the more income they make in later life, and the less money we have to spend on social services.   That’s one reason we get paid for each student in school, each day they are in school.

But keeping them in longer, and that goes for the homeless teen, the pregnant teen and the teen father is just going to benefit everyone in the long run.  Better yet if we can get them through college.