"Census: More school children in western Mass. live in poverty

By Associated Press

Friday, January 11, 2008 - Added 13h ago

SPRINGFIELD - New U.S. Census information shows that the percentage of school children living in poverty has grown in the last five years in more than a dozen western Massachusetts school districts.

For example, the Census Bureau says 33.2 percent of kids ages 5 to 17 in the Springfield school system lived below the federal poverty level in 2005. That's up from 27.2 percent in 2000.

But school officials say those numbers may actually underestimate the number of students whose families struggle to make ends meet.

Springfield School Superintendent Joseph Burke says about 77 percent of his students receive free or reduced cost lunches, a program for students whose families live on up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level."

From what I have been reading--prompted by your thread--two issues seen to be paramount in people's minds: Iraq and Poverty. I am certainly not astute enough to begin to understand how that will translate to votes for candidates.