Watervliet schools Superintendent Lori Caplan's commentary "Poverty, not intelligence, impacts school performance," July 25, echoes what we have seen at Catholic Charities for many years.
Childhood poverty erodes the very basis for stability that children depend on in order to be ready to learn — if food, clothing, shelter and security at home are at risk, children cannot perform well in school. Sadly, too many in the Capital Region are living in poverty — 20 percent of children (more than 12,000) in Albany County are living in poverty, and 31 percent of children in the city of Albany fall below the poverty line.
The work of Catholic Charities, through our agencies and community partners, is to provide assistance and supplement the resources available to help low-income children and families. As the need for assistance has gone up over the last few years, so has the need for more creative partnerships and for programs to do a better job of addressing the root causes of poverty.
There remains much work to be done, and I applaud Superintendent Caplan's effort to shine a light on the problem as it impacts school performance.
Vincent W. Colonno
CEO, Catholic Charities
of the Diocese of Albany