CULTURE, COMMON CORE, CUTTING REGULATIONS:

If our government leaders want to attack poverty, they should first acknowledge that an effective anti-poverty program is a strong family, led by two parents. The evidence on this is incontrovertible. And conservatives should not be afraid to say that as the family breaks down, so does opportunity. Our goal should be to build up families.

Then we must take aim at our deeply failed education system. The schools in our cities are not underfunded. But they nevertheless fail to prepare their students for the demands of life -- college, a job and the responsibilities of citizenship.

If we raise standards, demand accountability, reward great teachers and provide meaningful choices, we can create the tools that parents and kids need to rise up from poverty. Baltimore spends more than $15,000 per student each school year. That is more than virtually every developed nation in the world spends. And the third-highest for a large school system in America. Yet Baltimore's results are among the worst.

It is shameful that we have allowed the teachers unions and the economic interest of adults to leave school systems in cities like Baltimore in shambles with no plan for fixing them. Low-income kids have the God-given ability to learn and to succeed just like anyone else does. It is incumbent upon us to give them that chance.

To do so requires policies that encourage people in the toughest neighborhoods to start up businesses. Reducing regulations, removing expensive licensing requirements for startups and cutting occupational fees would make a substantial difference and give self-starters a chance to create high-paying jobs and hope where they live.

It can get better. I know it because I've seen it as governor, where a combination of education reforms and pro-growth policies helped raise household incomes up and down the income ladder -- and gave a generation of children a real chance to rise up.

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