Maura Morrison: Franklin County’s demographics

I read the Dec. 29 My Turn column by Marguerite Willis, “Repackaged old, failed education ideas still fail” and was disappointed that the writer begins with a statement that is incorrect. She states that she lives in the “poorest and whitest county in Massachusetts.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Franklin County falls squarely in the middle of the ranking of persons in poverty by percentage. Franklin County’s poverty rate is 10.6%. Counties with higher poverty rates in our state are: Suffolk, 17.5%; Hampden, 16.7%; Berkshire, 11.3%; Hampshire, 11.1%; Bristol, 10.8%; and Essex, 10.7%. There are seven counties with higher poverty rates and eight counties with lower poverty rates.

I dug a little further and found a listing of the 20 poorest cities in the state. Greenfield is not one of them. In terms of “whitest” locations, Greenfield ranks 137th in the state. There are 136 towns and cities with less diversity in their populations than Greenfield.

I urge writers and editors to do some fact-checking so that myths don’t perpetuate.

Maura Morrison

Greenfield