linked a post to Nicolas Kristof's article in the New York Times entitled 
Our Broken Escalator, which discusses the problems with funding education in Afghanistan, and not ensuring funding in our own school systems in the U.S.
The point remains that education is the best way to combat poverty, and while we can focus on doing that in countries across the world poverty is still striking large communities all over the country.
Here is an excerpt from the 
article "When I report on poverty in Africa and poverty in America, the  differences are vast. But there is a common thread: chipping away at  poverty is difficult and uncertain work, but perhaps the anti-poverty  program with the very best record is education — and that’s as true in  New York as it is in Nigeria.        
 Granted, budget shortfalls are real, and schools need reforms as well as  dollars. Pouring money into a broken system isn’t a solution, and we  need more accountability. But it’s also true that blindly slashing  budgets is making the problems worse. As Derek Bok, the former Harvard  president, once observed, “If you think education is expensive, try  ignorance.”"
I can't think of a better way to state how much education in America needs to change.