America’s poor don’t have much of a chance. Housing policies segregate them into neighborhoods with bad schools and high crime, college is out of reach, and wages aren’t rising with the cost of inflation.
“Poor kids, through no fault of their own, are less prepared by their families, their schools, and their communities to develop their God-given talents as fully as rich kids,” Richard Putnam wrote, in his book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, published in March.
So what is to be done?
Richard Kahlenberg, of the Century Foundation, has a plan: Create a new civil-rights movement for the poor and working class. This movement would push for policy changes that will make it easier for poor Americans to succeed, Kahlenberg says.
[For more of this story, written by Alana Semuels, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/bus...for-the-poor/406036/]
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