Letters: Better education essential to self-sufficiency

The March 23 story, “Self-sufficiency out of reach for many working families in SC,” missed an opportunity to address a key way for working families to achieve the dream of entering the middle class: We need to better equip students for academic success beginning in kindergarten.

It’s been 18 months since our state Supreme Court ruled in Abbeville v. South Carolina that students don’t have an equal shot at receiving a “minimally adequate” education. Simply put, kids from more affluent ZIP codes often have high-quality classrooms and kids from poor ones don’t.

I grew up in Columbia and attended public schools here; I’ve witnessed the cycle of poverty overwhelm a poor student’s will to succeed. Fixing this is an integral part of raising future earning potential for low-income students. These students need better support beginning the first day they enter a classroom.

Students at more affluent schools benefit greatly from classrooms that foster a culture of success, but too often this culture doesn’t exist in low-income schools. Poor students have fewer opportunities to learn the skills that employers will one day pay them for, and we should change that.