It's not an excuse. It's a condition.

From SOS Million Teacher March on Facebook. Click the cartoon for the link.

In 2007 Gerald Bracey wrote,

When people have said "poverty is no excuse," my response has been, "Yes, you're right. Poverty is not an excuse. It's a condition. It's like gravity. Gravity affects everything you do on the planet. So does poverty."

"Corporate Reformers" like to call the labels on the backpacks of the children in the above cartoon 'excuses' but teachers know first hand how outside influences affect children's achievement.

In Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success (2009) author David Berliner wrote,

Because America’s schools are so highly segregated by income, race, and ethnicity, problems related to poverty occur simultaneously, with greater frequency, and act cumulatively in schools serving disadvantaged communities. These schools therefore face significantly greater challenges than schools serving wealthier children, and their limited resources are often overwhelmed. Efforts to improve educational outcomes in these schools, attempting to drive change through test-based accountability, are thus unlikely to succeed unless accompanied by policies to address the [Out-of-School-Factors] that negatively affect large numbers of our nations’ students. Poverty limits student potential; inputs to schools affect outputs from them.

Read about Berliner's report at Blame for School Achievement Gap Misplaced.

...and here are some links to information about the "excuses."

TV

• The Effects of Extracurricular Activities on the Academic Performance of Junior High Students
• University of Michigan: Television and Children
• The Read Aloud Handbook: CHAPTER 9: TV, Audio, & Technology — Hurting or Helping Literacy?

Violence

• American Psychological Association: Violence & Socioeconomic Status
• The association of community violence exposure with middle-school achievement: A prospective study

Drugs

• Substance Abuse, Violence, Mental Health, and Academic Success
• Deterioration of academic achievement and marijuana use onset among rural adolescents

Abuse

• Child Welfare Information Gateway: Academic Achievement
• Child Welfare Information Gateway: Long-Term Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect
• Child Maltreatment: Effects on Development and Learning

Absent Parents

• Father Absence and the Welfare of Children
• The Importance of Fathers in the Healthy Development of Children

Poverty

• Teaching with Poverty in Mind: Chapter 2. How Poverty Affects Behavior and Academic Performance
• The impact of poverty on educational outcomes for children
• Poverty has a Powerful Impact on Educational Attainment, or, Don't Trust Ed Trust

Lack of role models

• Strengthening Childrens Success in School
• Reflections on Four Days of Dialogue on the Educational Challenges of Minority Males