We live in a country that has made great strides in Civil Rights and Women Rights throughout the last forty years, but ironically little has been done to address the issue of poverty. Education is truly the only platform that has stood the test of time, in regards to dealing with the problem of poverty in America. Regardless of how you look at the system of welfare, is does not provide a way for the children of America to prevent themselves from falling into the trap which their mothers or grandmothers have experienced.

The true problem of poverty is wrapped up in our belief in capitalism. There has to be rich people and poor people, or is this something we have been told in the Bible, and we assume it to be true? Jesus said in the Gospel of John 12:8, "You will always have the poor with you..." Do not get me wrong, I prefer capitalism over socialism; however, we need to attack poverty by treating school as a capital enterprise instead of a social cause in poor areas of America and not just at the collegiate level, but in elementary school. The practical education that many of us receive teach us to be employees. If poor areas are teaching its students to be employees and there is a lack of jobs in their community why would they ever come back? So you have to teach entrepreneurship, business, and computers beyond keystroke in poor areas whether they be urban, city, or rural. In urban areas, too often students are being lost to the streets, therefore to suggest an education curriculum that will allow students to develop highly desirable skills in several business fields could yield better results. As a result of this kind of curriculum, I believe students will begin to understand why you study English, reading comprehension, math, social studies, and science.

There are approximately 45 million Americans without health insurance. (DeNavas-Walt, C., B. Proctor, and R. J. Mills. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2003. U.S. Census Bureau., August 2004.) In many cases, this means that one serious medical procedure could put them out of their house or home. The 15% of Americans without vital health coverage may not be able to afford such health insurance, or have been recently laid off and cannot afford Cobra, or are uninsurable. A person without health insurance could be on the brink of destruction, but what are we doing to change that number to 0% without insurance. People can argue the benefits of their health saving accounts until they are blue in the face, but when you have nothing, you can be destroyed by a child's illness, or a spouse who loses their group health benefits.

In reality, we have created a class of poor people. We have jobs that pay minimum wage or $5.15 an hour in many states, and we want people to live where and to be able to afford their own health insurance? Barely any family can really afford to have more than four kids anymore, but no one cares to mention that fact. Congress has not changed the minimum wage standard since 1996. Yet it goes without saying that many of these jobs must be important, otherwise employers would just cut them. People try to argue that many Americans do not want these jobs, but it is an excuse for outsourcing. Tell me how these people can afford gas with it hovering at $3.00 a gallon, the cost of public transportation is not cheap in many areas, and food prices have seen significant increases in the past year. So what should these people do, work two jobs, or maybe three? I guess there has been no inflation in nine years?

It is sad that it takes a tragedy like the Hurricane Katrina to even to get a dialogue started concerning the plight of the poor. We should not be critical of other countries, in regards to how their poor are treated, unless we are truly committed to solving the issues in our own backgrounds. This is American and we have enough resources for their to be no poverty.

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