I Figli della Madre Terra (The Children of Mother Earth)

Buon Natale a tutti.  My cousin from Italy, Lorenzo Serpente (pictured below in the Clayfox  and Spider man shirt) has written a book called I Figli della Madre Terra or The Children of Mother Earth.  It is a science fiction/fantasy/coming of age story of a boy growing up in a prehistoric tribe.  In January there will be an English version of the story available on Amazon.  I have met several authors who have published books.  A few are listed below with links to their amazon pages.

Lorenzo ora (Lorenzo Now)

Merry Christmas to all.  Il Mio cugino d'Italia, Lorenzo Serpente (nella camicia "Clayfox" sotto) ha scritto un Libro I Figli della Madre Terra) una storia di un ragazzo alla prima della storia in un tribu`.  Si puo` comprare il Libro al Amazon.  Conosco molti auroti chi fanno libri.  Tre di quelle altri autori sono sotto in questo posto con un link al Amazon.

Lorenzo quando ho incontrato lui

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The Greater Johnstown School District is Highest in PA in Poverty for Ages 5-17

Map of the Greater Johnstown School District (in Blue) with 42.3% Poverty Age 5-17

The new SAIPE (Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates)  are out for the year 2017.  It covers all states, counties, and school districts (for children age 5-17) in the US.  For the US the rate for children 5-17 was an estimated 17.1%.  For the state of Pennsylvania it was 15.7% for this age group. There were 500 school districts in Pennsylvania in 2017.   This post will focus on southern Cambria County (the whole county had 21% poverty for age 5-17).  

The Greater Johnstown School District (GJSD) had the highest poverty rate in the state (highlighted in blue in the map above) with 42.3% poverty for ages 5-17.  By contrast the neighboring districts of Westmont (which covered the municipalities of Upper Yoder, Westmont, Southmont, and Elim in the map) had a rate of 10.1%, Ferndale (in 4 green fragments in the southeast corner of the GJSD) had a rate of 23.8%, Richland (covering Richland and Geistown) had a rate of 11.2%) and Conemaugh Valley (covering East Conemaugh) had a rate of 21.3% which is almost exactly at the county rate.  The top ten school districts with the highest poverty percentages are presented in the table below.

Looking at past estimates for GJSD that I have written about in this blog, the poverty rates for ages 5-17 was 40.7% in 2013, 41.1% in 2014, 36.9% in 2015, 42.5% in 2016, and it was 42.32% in 2017.  There is some statistical uncertainty in these estimates, especially for districts with small populations such as Salisbury-Elk Lick SD with 473 children.  GJSD however is still a relatively large district population in this group so we can be reasonably confident in these numbers.  The population of GJSD is larger than the population for Johnstown city (19,643) because it includes surrounding municipalities.  

2017 Poverty Estimates for School districts                                                                         Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Small Area Income and Poverty Program (SAIPE)                                                                                                            Release date:   December 2018
Name	Estimated Total Population	Estimated Population 5-17	Estimated number of relevant children 5 to 17 years old in poverty who are related to the householder	% of Children 5-17 in Poverty
Greater Johnstown School District	25,603	3,464	1,466	42.32
Salisbury-Elk Lick School District	2,844	473	199	42.07
Clairton City School District	6,788	865	347	40.12
Aliquippa School District	9,193	1,257	494	39.30
Farrell Area School District	5,350	837	323	38.59
Harrisburg City School District	50,923	8,743	3,365	38.49
Sto-Rox School District	12,449	1,841	682	37.05
Duquesne City School District	5,561	949	347	36.56
Brownsville Area School District	14,443	1,786	623	34.88
Shenandoah Valley School District	7,638	1,174	407	34.67

I was going to write about how the Greater Johnstown, PA was the poorest in the state thinking that I would be the first but apparently I have been scooped.  Samuel Stebbins and Michael B. Sauter at MSN.com have produced a list of the poorest towns in each state and Johnstown was it for Pennsylvania.  They state that the median annual income here is $24,075 below the state income of $54,895.  A search of the census bureau's statistical profile for Johnstown shows that the median income is $23,636 for 2017 for Johnstown and $ 56,951 for the state.  The authors did not state the source of their numbers but I assume that they used numbers from the census from some other recent year.  The 2017 numbers suggest an even larger income gap between Johnstown and the rest of the state now than the year Stebbins and Sauter used.
The GJSD has been going through upheaval over nepotism going on in the school board.  This does not mean that the upheaval is what is causing the problems in poverty in the district but it does mean that the focus must be on providing services the the poor students there.   

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2013 Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates Are Out for School Districts and Counties in PA

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