Education: The Answer to Poverty?

The best long-term bet [for combating poverty], we think, is simply education. Despite some encouraging studies of compensatory programs, experience suggests education is a better engine of social advancement than any alternative. And partly because too much energy has been wasted arguing other things, the nation’s cities have yet to evolve a truly comprehensive and coordinated school program for slums. Such a program would require spending more money on slum schools than even on suburban ones.—Wall Street Journal

The facts are striking: the lower the level of education, the higher the rate of unemployment and the lower the level of income. The obvious need in reducing poverty is to increase educational levels of the poor.

Economists, proponents of government poverty programs, and educators themselves support this conclusion. The growth of the American economy, some leading economists argue, is largely the result of investing i...