Brianna Conkle

Erin Lebacqz

English 219

November 13, 2017

The Importance of Education

Introduction

Education is important in every childs life. Getting educated helps you learn and prepare

you for the future. The purpose of my report is to investigate the effects poverty has on

childrens future education. The reports main point is to find that poverty does effect education

and if thats the case its hurting childrens learning abilities too. The importance of education is a

vital tool that is used in the world to succeed. The importance of childrens education is help

children develop emotionally, socially, and physically because it has a direct effect on their

overall development as well as becoming an adult. Education is important to children, so that

they understand their furture is important as well. Around 3500 B.C. is when the earliest

education was founded. And over the last 150 to 200 years its been developing all around the

world. In my report I will conduct research to analyze data that I find on the effect poverty has

on childrens future education.

Did you know New Mexico is ranked 48th in the nation in educational achievement. The

percentage for overall college graduated in the state is 34%. Our overall median income is

$23,534 and the economy is ranked 47th. Both New Mexicos education and economy are both

ranked near the bottom out of #50. To know this information is just really hard to take in

knowing that you grew up in this state and 20 years later youre in college and still nothing has
improved, but has gotten worse. My hypothesis was right, thinking that the effect of poverty is

highly related to education.

Methodology

I conducted my research with the use of primary and secondary resources. For my

primary resource I would be conducting a survey of three questions: 1. Did you go to public

school or private? 2. If you answered yes to going to a private school, what do you think or know

was the cost of attending there? 3. Did other family members attend private or public schools?

With this survey I can get idea of the people within my work, what kind of school they attended

and correlate it to the position they hold at our work and determine if it affected their job

positions as well. Most of my coworkers are 22 years and older. The younger coworkers lived in

different parts of the state, such as Raton, Clayton, Las Cruces, Belen, and Socorro. As for the

older coworkers they had lived in Albuquerque, except for one who grew up in California. The

problem with doing a survey is that not everyone wants to put how much their parents had to pay

for them to attend private school or that they didnt reply. For my secondary research I mainly

used websites and scholarly journals and articles. I looked for information that was conducted

about the effects of poverty in other countries besides the United States. I really wanted to find

out the effect poverty has on low income households. The whole purpose of this research is to

find out if poverty in households are affecting education.

Results

The overall conclusions about my results of my report on the effects poverty has on

education is that not only is it bad here in America, it is also bad in other countries such as

Kenya. The survey I did at my work was really eye opening. I surveyed 15 people from work
including managers and other student coworkers. Some other results I found were about New

Mexicos poverty and education. Poverty has a direct effect on family incomes as well as

education. All those are linked together and has a very negative effect on the state of New

Mexico as well in other countries. If we can fix poverty we can fix our education systems.

Discussion

In my first finding, I did a survey that I conducted at my work. I wrote up an email with

three different questions. Not a lot of my coworkers responded due to the fact that they had to

provide financial information about themselves, but the workers that did provided great

information. Four out of the 15 coworkers said that they went to private school. They each

replied with the amount their parents had paid over the years. Some went to private school from

Pre-K to high school and other went from elementary to high school. Three of the coworkers are

now in the late 30s so private school then was cheaper than private schools now. The one

coworker that was a student responded saying her parents had paid over $8000 grand. Four of the

coworkers that are older are now project managers, chief executives. I think that somehow

relates the job you have to the kind of education you get.

My second finding was looking up New Mexicos rankings in poverty and education.

Households below Poverty Line

 With all the states around us, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, and Oklahoma, we score around

the 20% range with all the other states being at 16%. It might not seem that we have a higher

poverty rate being at 20% but it really does affect us. Below you can see the College Readiness

chart and the ranking we have is 43rd out of #50. In the Poverty Line chart, we are ranked 49th

out of #50. New Mexico is doing a horrendous job in preparing children and students for a

successful future and I think that is due to the poverty rank we have out of United States. In other

categories we rank between anywhere from 1st in Low Debt at Graduation, Low Prison

Population, and Government Credit Rating, from 50th in High School Grad Rate, Public Safety,

and Growth in Young Population.

College Readiness

Based on Students Meeting ACT Benchmarks

For my third finding, I researched the education and poverty in another country besides

the United States, Kenya. Even in Kenya poverty and education have negative outcomes. I

thought it was bad in New Mexico, but it is happening all around the world in other countries.
These two important subjects are a problem for many cities around the world and they really

shouldnt be. They should be talked about in great presences but are not.

Below is a chart based on the relationship between poverty level and dropout per

province across the years 2005-2007. The dropout rates are far more susceptible to health,

economic, and social problems.

Overall my research and findings all concluded my hypothesis that poverty does effect

education and childrens future for education. All my findings proved that poverty is most likely

going to affect education and other things such as health and crime. Poverty especially in New

Mexico is bad and we are ranked high up on the charts of being almost the worst. Are education

systems need to be revaluated and things need to start changing to get New Mexico out of the

high-ranking states of low poverty and education.

Conclusion

For my report I am concluding that poverty does influence education, especially

childrens education for the future. My recommendations for next steps to do is, conduct further

research just in the Albuquerque area. I would try to survey some communities within the area as

well. I will also consider conducting research on high school dropout rates and low-income
families. Education is significant in our world today. You need an education to get a job, get into

certain schools, gain knowledge, and prepare for the world later in adult life. I hope in another 20

years or so that poverty in New Mexico and all around the world gets better. We need to provide

equality education to anyone that is willing to learn and prepare themselves. I would like to

thank the individuals that took time out to read my report and review my findings, and hope that

you gain some knowledge you already didnt know. If you would like to contact me for further

information, my information is below:

Name: Brianna Conkle

Email: Bconkle1@unm.edu

Phone Number: 505-601-7170

 Bibliography
Research and Pictures

New Mexico Ranks No. 46 Among U.S. States. U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World
Report, 13 Nov. 2017, www.usnews.com/news/best-states/new-mexico.
Mwiria, Kilemi. Vocationalisation of Secondary Education: Kenya Case Study.
Vocationalisation of Secondary Education Revisited UNESCO-UNEVOC Book Series Technical
and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, 11 June 2011, pp.
227305., doi:10.1007/1-4020-3034-7_6.