Rutherford Poverty Q1
Education is critical to helping people avoid poverty. Not everyone needs a college degree to get a good job, but when they can’t read proficiently or do simple math, they are more likely to be impoverished, and when their children grow up in poverty, those children are more likely to fall behind in school and follow the same course as their parents. Everyone needs to graduate from high school, and many should take advantage of additional vocational training, especially from our community colleges, which offer an incredible variety of certificates and training programs that allow people to gain marketable skills.
A lack of financial literacy is one of the key factors that keeps people in poverty and often leads people into it as well. When people don’t understand how to use credit, how to budget, or how to use compound interest to their advantage, they can quickly get themselves into financial trouble that will follow them the rest of their lives.
