Area school districts and their percent of kids who are low income (Dallas: middle-class)

[FarNorthDallas]

Allen 14%
Arlington 54%
Birdville 45%
Carroll 1%
Carrollton-Farmers Branch 51%
Cedar Hill 43%
Celina 28%
Coppell 7%
Crandall 25%
Dallas 84%
Denton 38%
DeSoto 48%
Duncanville 59%
Ennis 60%
Ferris 67%
Forney 19%
Fort Worth 71%
Frisco 11%
Garland 48%
Grand Prairie 62%
Grapevine-Colleyville 13%
Highland Park 0%
HEB 42%
Irving 72%
Kaufman 51%
Keller 14%
Lake Dallas 21%
Lancaster 65%
Lewisville 21%
Little Elm 39%
Lovejoy 2%
Mansfield 29%
McKinney 29%
Mesquite 49%
Midlothian 16%
Northwest 20%
Plano 19%
Red Oak 32%
Richardson 49%
Rockwall 19%
Royse City 33%
Sunnyvale 11%
Terrell 66%
Waxahachie 45%
Wylie 24%
Statewide 55%

Source Dallas Morning News article today about TAKS scores

[loves2read]

am surprised that the Keller ISD score is as low as it is--and Wylie is as low as it is--I don't see how Wylie can be that low...

[MaryS80]

wow, I am surprised the numbers are so high is so many districts. Dallas I already knew was very high. I must be sheltered or something.

[socketz]

I'm just wondering what low income is here ?

I mean in CA, 50k is low income, but here, you could lead a nice little middle class existence on 50k.

I mean 84% low income in Dallas ? Is that even possible ?

[FarNorthDallas]

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governan.../IEGs07-08.pdf

I think this is the document - the income requirements (maximums) for free and reduced lunches. It depends on the number of peope in the home.

3 people in the household $31,765 for reduced lunch and $22,321 for free lunch.

[Texan#1]

a lot of parents lie about their incomes in order to get free/reduced food for their children... i know this for a fact as I used to volunteer at an elementary a few years ago. it typically goes unchecked.

[MaryS80]

Originally Posted by socketz

I'm just wondering what low income is here ?

I mean in CA, 50k is low income, but here, you could lead a nice little middle class existence on 50k.

I mean 84% low income in Dallas ? Is that even possible ?

very possible. it's not that the 84% of the general population is low income in dallas either. A lot of families who live in DISD areas send their kids to private school, or use a false address to get their kids in neighboring suburban district. I attended one semester of school in DISD back in 1993. Almost every single student in that school was on free or reduced lunch. Many students families didn't have the money to even buy them basic school supplies.

[Lakewooder]

On the flip side, some of the richest people in Texas send their kids to public schools in my part of Dallas - with the the poor and middle-class people - and it doesn't bother them a bit.

And yep I would say that some of those classified 'low-income' are not reporting their cash incomes.

[KewGee]

Here is the link for the Health and Human Services Poverty Guidelines for 2007.

2007 Federal Poverty Guidelines

I believe low-income is a step above poverty, so I can see why so many school districts and cities are impoverished.

In 2005, Texas ranked 5th by the U.S. Census Bureau in persons below the poverty level, so among the wealthy also live the very poor. Mississippi ranked #1 in poverty and New Hampshire was #50. NH has a very low crime rate as well, ranking #47 in the nation.

[DFWMike]

I do alot of demographic research and those numbers are pretty accurate. From what I've seen low income is considered household income below 30k for a family of four, of course that changes with size of household. Places like Wylie and McKinney have high numbers because both have a older downtown area that affords cheap rent and of course the low income apartments that the powers that be always try to force into affluent areas.

Same problem as in Dallas, only problem is there are not a whole lot of middle class families in Dallas to balance out the scales, yes I know there are middle class neighborhoods in Dallas, but even the staunchest Dallas supporters have to admit they are a vast minority in the city. Every high school in DISD with one exception(Booker T Washington30%) is at least 55% low income.