A Statistical Analysis Of Educational And Income Levels Of Rural Low-Income Families

Poverty in the United States has long been recognized; although, only until recently have any steps been taken to counteract it, The late President John P. Kennedy, in an effort to declare War on Poverty, said that prosperity has not wiped out poverty. In I960, seven million families and individuals had incomes of less than $2,000. In part, the failure to overcome poverty is a mere sequence of the failure to operate (the economy) at full potential. These two devices, to operate the economy at full potential and to provide adequately for those who either are victims of the economy\u27s maladjustments or are unable to make their way for other unanswered reasons, represent practical expressions of social values of less than a decade ago relating to poverty, which contradict the mainly materialistic values within which poverty has flourished. Society as a whole has long recognized the importance of education and other aspects of human capital. In 1696, a government act ordered that schools be established in every parish in Scotland.1 Adam Smith later criticized the policy of state endowments to schools, favoring instead a policy whereby teachers and schools would be financed by parents of pupils in attendance, According to Smith, parents could be relied upon to select the best teachers; hence, the competitive process would insure high standards, John S. Mill recognized the inadequacies of free-market or an allocator of education because the buyer was unable to judge the quality of the product