Examining the poverty line in the developmental mathematics classroom.

SETTING CONTEXT

I teach developmental mathematics at Alverno College--a small, private liberal arts college for women. The college reflects the diversity of the surrounding community; 35% of enrolled students are women of color. For over twenty years, the college has offered a dynamic, continuously evolving, ability-based curriculum. The college rejects traditional letter grades in favor of an ongoing assessment practice, providing feedback on each learner's progress toward understanding eight context-based ability areas: communication, analysis, problem solving, valuing in decision-making, social interaction, developing a global perspective, effective citizenship, and aesthetic engagement. MT 050, Applying Mathematical Thinking, is our entirely context-based, discussion oriented, entry-level course. Students enrolled in MT 050 are being prepared for further work at the first level of the communication ability, with an emphasis on quantitative literacy.

MT 050 classroom activities currently address a wide range of topics including college enrollment demographics, world gross domestic product, Drug Enforcement Agency seizure and eradication statistics, and women in the workforce trends. Discussions related to the mathematics inherent to these topics frequently cross over into other ability areas, such as developing a global perspective. For example, as students apply place value concepts while completing an activity related to world gross domestic product, they struggle with the correctness of their answers. It is not at all unusual for a student to calculate that the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune have a combined wealth greater than the GDP of many entire nations and believe that they must have made an error in their arithmetic (they haven't).

Facilitating learning experiences which lead to such "Eureka!" moments, where students discover that they are able to use their emerging quantitative literacy to make sense out of new contextual information, is rewarding indeed. These moments are also pedagogically important. This article describes a recently created addition to MT 050, Examining the Federal Poverty Line, which has led to several "Eureka]" moments for students.

WHY EXAMINE THE POVERTY LINE?

A brief excerpt from Patrick Shannon's (1998) book, Reading Poverty, serves as the impetus for the classroom activity and subsequent discourse surrounding Examining the Federal Poverty Line. In this excerpt, Shannon explained how in 1963 the U.S. Department of Agriculture calculated that three "minimally adequate" meals for a family of four could be prepared for precisely $2.736 (p. 42). He went on to explain how this figure, in combination with the assumption that one-third of a typical family budget could be set aside for food, led to the establishment of $3000 in annual income as the original, 1963 poverty line. This quantitative information lends itself easily to fraction, decimal, and percent manipulation, and is also appropriate for context-based approximations and comparisons. In addition, Shannon's linguistic style ("... Since 1963, no adjustments have been made ... to accommodate the many changes in Americans' standard of living") prompts students to engage in critical thinking, including an examination of his perspectives and assumptions (p. 42).

It is important to note that any examination of the federal poverty line is likely to resonate with many of my students. Seventy-one percent of Alverno's population are first-generation college students, and 88% of the student body receives Federal financial aid. In addition, the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin where my institution is located, has the seventh highest rate of poverty out of all metropolitan cities in the United States; fully 26.0% of Milwaukee residents live below the federal poverty line (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2005).

NUTRITION AND FOOD COST ANALYSIS

Part I of Examining the Poverty Line refers back to Shannon's (1998) explanation of how the federal poverty line is based upon food budget calculations and asks, "Is a family food budget equal to one-third of a family's total income at the poverty line reasonable?" To answer this question, classwork is centered on a fictitious family with three members--a woman and her two young children. As of 2005, the federal poverty line for such a family is $16,090 per year. Students determine after a series of calculations that this annual figure equates to a weekly income of $309.42, and are then asked to determine whether a family with three members can maintain a nutritious diet without exceeding one-third of this income or $103.14 per week.

To answer these questions, basic government nutrition guidelines and sample supermarket prices are provided. A quick examination of a sample weekly menu of nutritious foods should lead to a class conclusion that $103.14 per week is in fact a reasonable food budget for our family of three.

TOTAL BUDGET ANALYSIS

Part II of Examining the Poverty Line helps students to unveil a more complex question: "Is expecting that a family living at the poverty line will be able to budget one-third of their income for food reasonable?" To answer this question, students are asked to look beyond food expenses and examine the cost of housing, transportation, and other essential expenses in their local community. Classified advertisements describing rental properties, mass transit fares, and sample utility bills are available for students' perusal.

Using division and subtraction, students determine that a family of three living at the poverty line, after budgeting one-third of their income for food, will have $893.33 in remaining income per month. The class activity presents students with four housing options as described in a local newspaper and asks students to choose and explain their preferred option. Finally, students are guided to consider the combined cost of public transportation and three additional essential monthly expenses of their choice. After completing a monthly budget table, students are instructed to write a series of reflective statements regarding their examination of the poverty line.

DISCUSSION

In my own classroom, Examining the Poverty Line sparked meaningful discussion among students around several key issues. These issues included the incongruence between the federal minimum wage and the federal poverty line, the hidden costs of housing, and the definition of essential expenses.

When I asked my class to consider the likely hourly wage of an individual living at the poverty line, I first received the wry response, "Well they ain't makin" no $20 an hour!" Another student stated simply that a person earning minimum wage lives at the poverty line. But do they? As students divided annual poverty line income by the federal hourly minimum wage, they observed and discussed how a federal poverty line income of $16,090 per year for a mother and her two children equates to the mother working 60.1 hours per week. Students discussed the unlikelihood of finding a minimum wage-paying job that would even offer the possibility of 60.1 hours of work per week. As one student explained, "the parent has less time with the kids became [she] may be working two minimum-wage paying jobs ... If the cost of living keeps growing, why can't the minimum wage [grow] with it? It keeps people struggling."

This concern is well substantiated in literature. Research has shown that, while a full-time minimum wage-earner could adequately support a family of three in 1960, a minimum wage-earner today cannot (Hodgkinson, 1997). As McCabe (2000) explained, "the reality is that working is not always a ticket out of poverty ... this creates a new category of Americans--the working poor" (p. 16).

As students turned the focus of their small group discussions to the costs associated with housing, predictable disagreements arose. Simply attempting to select a rental unit from the list fostered lively discussion, due in part to Milwaukee's longstanding reputation as a racially segregated city. According to U.S. Census 2000 data, Milwaukee is the second most segregated metropolitan area in the United States. One African-American student stated that she would "obviously" select the least expensive apartment; the address of the unit was located in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. A Caucasian student stated that she would prefer the second-lowest priced apartment, because "it is in a good neighborhood." Another student, also Caucasian, agreed that the second-lowest priced apartment was the best choice "because heat is included and that would eliminate one bill per month." Seeming to sense the racial undertones of the budding discussion, students diverted their spoken concerns to issues of mass transit access and heating provisions at each location.

The most interesting--and lively--discussion arose when students were asked to list three additional essential expenses and their monthly totals. Fully 20% of students listed cable television as essential. A student who did not list cable television seemed annoyed, stating pointedly that "cable TV is a luxury and is not an essential expense." One student, in her early 20s and without dependents, listed a monthly clothing allowance of $200 as essential. An older classmate who is raising children offered that the only essential clothing expense she could think of is larger shoes for her children and suggested a monthly clothing budget of $10. Recent high school graduates, without exception, did not list the cost of heating as an essential expense. A student who is also the head of a household, in contrast, listed a monthly heating expense of $200. In a large group format, the class discussed the cost of heating and settled on $150 for this activity. Another surprising omission, despite the fact that almost one-third of the students who completed this activity are mothers, was the absence of childcare as a listed essential expense. When I raised the issue myself, one student stated that perhaps babysitting co-ops and family members can offset the cost of childcare.

At the end of an hour long discussion, my class created the following data table to represent the monthly budget (assuming free childcare) for our fictitious family of three:

MONTHLY BUDGET

Total Monthly Income     $1,340
Food                       $446
Housing                    $615
Transportation              $90
Gas and/or Electricity     $150
Telephone                   $40
Health Insurance           $150
Clothing                    $10
Hygiene, Health, and
School Supplies             $25
Monthly Income Remaining  -$186

When one student asked, "How can the monthly income remaining equal a negative number?" there was a long and quiet pause. The class reached a rather solemn conclusion that an annual income at the poverty line is not sufficient to support a family. When asked to reflect upon the presumption that families living at the poverty line spend one-third of their income on food, one student commented that this is "not realistic--even if the amount calculated is reasonable, [it] seems to overlook the other payments that a house[hold] is responsible for." Other statements included, "The federal poverty line isn't sufficient anymore because since the calculation was designed many things have changed that should be considered," and "While some people can stretch dollars more than others, a few dollars would not change anything ... we're forgetting about the child[ren]'s field trips at school, basics for the home, the list could go on." Perhaps the most startling response was one student's assertion that "many people know how to budget and make it work. For example, a woman with a four year-old and a six year-old can get food stamps and a government health program to save money." At this point, our class session ended. The issue of whether or not relying upon government programs is a complete solution to the problems surrounding poverty line calculations remains for future discussion.

For some, college is viewed as a means of escaping poverty. Certainly then, it makes sense to foster critical examination of the federal poverty line itself.

REFERENCES

Hodgkinson, H. "Diversity Comes in All Sizes and Shapes." School Business Affairs, April 1997: 3-9.

Instructional Services, Alverno College. Applying Mathematical Thinking. Mente, S., Klein, J., & Bannier, B. Eds. Milwaukee, WI: Alverno College Productions, 2005.

McCabe, R. No One to Waste: A Report to Public Decision-Makers and Community College Leaders. Washington, D.C.: Community College Press, 2000.

Shannon, P. Reading Poverty. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Top Ten Metropolitan Cities with High Poverty Rate. 2005. Available online at: http://www.usccb.org/cchd/pove rtyusa/povfact6.shtml