The role of education in poverty eradication, in close co-operation with other social sectors, is crucial. No country has succeeded if it has not educated its people. Not only is education important in reducing poverty, it is also a key to wealth creation. Within this context, one of the pledges of the for Action - Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments - was "to promote EFA policies within a sustainable and well-integrated sector framework clearly linked to poverty elimination and development strategies".
Undertaking this research was disheartening at first. In each country I visited, officials from national governments and international agencies that donate funds for the expansion of state-run education denied that private education for the poor even existed. In China senior officials told me that what I was describing was “logically impossible” because “China has achieved universal public education and universal means for the poor as well as the rich.” At other times, in other places, I met with polite, if embarrassed, apologies that always went something like, “Sorry, in our country, private schools are for the privileged, not the poor.”
Any child depends on others for support and education. In the Objectivist view, parents are obligated to provide a reasonable minimum in this regard, but beyond that parents have the right to vary the degree of their investment. And others are free to invest in the child's education as they choose and the parents permit.
Who will support meritorious children and young adults in seeking a good education? Those who care to, or those who can make money from doing so. Those who care to will include philanthropists and universities bent on finding brilliant students.
But let's consider the latter group, though the former have been bountiful. In a free society, it is quite conceivable that poor people with potential should be able to finance their education by taking out loans. The main reason such loans are not widely available now without government support is the personal bankruptcy laws, which show little respect for contracts. Under a system that held people to debt obligations (allowing bankrupts to manage, not evade, debts), loans for education should be a good business. Just as today one can go to professional school on commercial loans, so could one get a college education in a system based on individual freedom and responsibility. Of course, this only works if one graduates from University prepared to get a good job and earn enough to pay back one's loans, but that's how it should be.
