ECT: A failure to connect

The Escambia Children’s Trust’s executive director, Tammy Greer, appeared before the school board on Monday and responded to criticism that the ECT only awarded two out-of-school time grants to agencies in north Escambia when the board approved last week $5.1 million for 19 providers.

NorthEscambia.com reported that Greer said, “When you go north of Nine Mile Road, there’s nothing there outside of school for the children. We really want to find the programs that are there that are serving children so that we can make them aware that we exist because we didn’t get applications from them.”

Here is the disconnect. North Escambia doesn’t have as much need as other parts of the county.

According to the gap analysis done by the UWF Haas Center for the Florida Chamber, the five zip codes that cover the central and northern areas of the county only have 1,268 children under the age of 12 living in poverty – about 17% of that age group in those zip codes:

The school grades for those areas reflect that. Four of the five elementary schools are B schools, one is an A school:

Bratt – B
Bryneville – B
Jim Allen – B
Kingsfield – B
Molino – A

Two inner-city zip codes have more than twice as many elementary school children living in poverty – 45% of the kids under 12:

Some of the elementary schools serving these neighborhoods are among the lowest performing in the county and state. Lincoln Park is the only B school, three are D’s.

Brentwood – C
C.A. Weis – C
Global Learning – D
Lincoln Park – B
Montclair – D
Oakcrest – D

Spreading Trust dollars around without focusing on the neighborhoods with the most significant needs is a mistake.  With the help of the Haas Center, we can drill down even further into the data and identify the exact census tracts with the most poverty and needs.

The Escambia Children’s Trust is trying to put together a puzzle without looking at the picture on the box.  The picture on the box is 32505.