'POVERTY' photo (c) 2005, Paul Downey - license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Paul Bruno has described one of my common frustrations:

When charged with “ignoring poverty”, many education reformers will respond that in fact improving education is the best way to fight poverty.

Arne Duncan once went so far as to say that “the only way to end poverty is through education.”

Here are some articles questioning that perspective, and I hope readers will contribute more.

In addition, you might also be interested in:

The Best Visualizations Of Poverty In The U.S. & Around The World

The Best Resources About Wealth & Income Inequality

Now, here are my choices for The Best Articles Showing Why Education Reform Is NOT The Best Way To Fight Poverty:

The three must-read pieces on this topic are from Paul Bruno:

Bruno: Who Told Us The Education Fights Poverty, Anyway? appeared in This Week In Education.

Reformers and International Comparisons was published in Paul’s own blog.

Doug Lemov wrote a post critical of Paul’s posts — his piece is worth reading, but the comments are what I think are particularly useful.

And then Paul wrote a response titled Why Education Reform is Probably Not The Best Way to Fight Poverty.

Education is Not the Answer is from Jacobin.

Dialogue with the Gates Foundation: Can Schools Defeat Poverty by Ignoring It?
is by Anthony Cody at Ed Week.

America’s dangerous education myth: Why it isn’t the best anti-poverty program is from Salon.

Education isn’t enough for a just recovery is by Robert Kuttner.

“Poor kids who do everything right don’t do better than rich kids who do everything wrong”

“The Widening Racial Wealth Divide” Is Such An Important – & Accessible – Article

As I mentioned earlier, I hope readers will contribute more…