Barack Obama Quotes

It might be that my poverty is my fault—the result of my ineptitude or my laziness. However, is there any way that the poverty that my child is condemned to is his fault? He certainly does not have the same opportunity as my child would if I were rich. But where then is our equality of opportunity?

I think all of us have really got to redouble our efforts, first of all, to pay attention to the K-12 crisis. The sad fact is that I can look at your zip code and tell whether you're going to get a good education. That's not fair. And secondly, I hope that all of us who were fortunate enough to have benefited will put our time, our resources and our efforts into making sure that kids, particularly kids without means, have a way to achieve.

70% of children born into poverty will never make it to the middle class. The uncomfortable truth is that there are now a number of other countries with as much or more opportunity than ours. In fact, more people in Canada go on to surpass the income of their parents than in the United States.

[The Americans] believe in the idea that a child shouldn't be consigned to poverty just because of circumstances of their birth.

I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in that little Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of those children because they were too poor. And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained closed to any American.

If you are born into poverty, the chances are good that your children will be born into poverty. Find a way to give poor kids the same cognitive stimulus that rich kids receive, and they should end up with the same tools for success.

You know, I love all kinds of activism. I certainly think blacks deserve to have something whether it is affirmative action or an opportunity that should be opened up to them. But at the same time I believe that people of color are not the only poor people in America and all over the world.

Income inequality is troubling because, among other things, it means that many people in our society don't have the opportunities to advance themselves.

One of the strangest things about life is that the poor, who need the money the most, are the ones that never have it.

There's no reason why children in inner cities or rural areas do not receive the same quality education or opportunities as those in suburbs or wealthy neighborhoods. If we truly believe in giving all citizens a chance to pursue happiness and pursue their goals, then we cannot continue to marginalize entire groups of people.

Growing up I always felt like I was living on the other side of the tracks. I knew the people on the other side had more resources, more money, happier families.

It so happens, in Malaysia, the people who are in a way not doing as well constitute the majority of the people - the Bumiputeras.

Most of black America is in housing projects, without jobs, living on welfare. And this is not the case in 'The Cosby Show,' because all the values in that household are strictly what I would call white American values.

Schools are successful only insofar as they reduce the dependence of a child's opportunities upon his social origins.

My kids never had the advantage I had: I was born poor.

Poor children fare worse than rich children on just about everything that social scientists measure.

One-fourth of the children in this country are poor—and they don't vote.

Visible minorities lead in education but trail in income.

The upwardly mobile American is becoming a statistical oddity..

Those who start life with the fewest advantages need the smallest classes.

We know what works. What works are the very opportunities that advantaged families provide for their children.

The children of those people [long term unemployed] have less education, earn less, have higher unemployment. The problems are visited upon the children

… perceptions of poverty have gone up because there’s been rising inequality.

On the surface, public schools can seem egalitarian, especially with their websites' emphasis on words such as 'connection,' 'community,' and 'choice.' Yet despite this democratic vocabulary, money makes a big difference.

There are a lot of children in our country that, because of their neighborhood or socio-economic status, do not have the opportunity to attend a good school that will prepare them for life's challenges.