Reducing poverty requires a focus both on what government needs to do and on what individuals need to do. We need a combination of responsible policies and responsible behavior. Although there are many things that might be done to reduce poverty in the U.S., some priorities should be: getting a good education and not having children before you marry. The government should expect people to make real efforts to comply with each of these norms. Ensuring that everyone gets a good education would help to provide very high-quality early education to all children from low-income families. Many people believe that education in the preschool years only affects young children. In fact, the evidence from both neuroscience and from carefully done program evaluations shows that preschool experiences have long-lasting effects and may be the most cost-effective way to ensure that more children are successful in the K-12 years, graduate from high school, go on to college, and earn more as adults. many teens and young adults are having children before they are married and before they are ready to be good parents. The solution to this problem resides as much in the larger culture-in what parents, the media, faith communities, and key adults say and do-as it does in any shift in government policy.
