J. Fred Watson: Education beats poverty
Quoting from your April 29 editorial “Baltimore flares,” “It is time for a national jobs program focused on low-income areas.” I presume that the Sandtown-Winchester section of Baltimore is one of the low-income areas you have in mind.
The urban poor, as you say, want schools that educate their children and jobs that pay enough to support a home and a family. But look what you said about that particular section: “(H)alf the population between 18 and 24 is not employed,” “and half the children going to high school are chronically absent.”
How can schools educate children who are not in attendance? How can a person between the ages of 18 and 24 expect to find a job that pays enough to support a home and a family when they have no education and probably no salable skills?
J. Fred Watson
Sanford
This story was originally published May 4, 2015 at 5:18 PM with the headline "J. Fred Watson: Education beats poverty."