Chapter Five Section Three

Society has a large role in making sure that children develop

successfully while growing up in poverty.
Many people in this country agree that the government should help
these families, but they cant agree on how this should be done and
what steps should be taken given that many things in the past failed
and few helped.
In history it was one of the most important functions of the
governments to help alleviate some of the strain on these poor families
and help young people get out of poverty and have more opportunities
to have a better life.
Public aid for poor families has gone down over the years because of a
few reasons, but primarily because no one wants to talk about poverty
as its own issue.
Many people agreed that our society should help so that everyone has
equal opportunity.
A problem that arose over the years was that citizens believed that
poor families should get help, but no one talks about it.
In the 60s -90s poverty was one of the most important and popular
topics discussed by presidential candidates.
The president now does not often discuss this issue, however the
poverty level has increased.
Some efforts to help alleviate poverty were successful, but many were
not.
Ending poverty turned out to be a much larger task than Americans
once thought.
The poverty debate and the education debate came together and this
could be the main reason that poverty as its own issue is no longer
discussed.
There may be two reasons why this joining of topics occurred. The Bell
Curve was introduced and it was said to determine many things about
a person and their potential.
Those kids who did well would do better in life.
It was then believed, that if we helped poor students improve their
academic skills, it would improve their outcome in life and get them
out of poverty.
This idea was popular after the No Child Left Behind law was passed
and new higher level schools were introduced. The students at these
schools were getting outstanding grades and test scores.
People began to think that if all schools were changed to be like these
higher level schools, then all students would do well.

People were excited about this idea and they believed that it would
work.
This was how, The Education Reform Movement, began.