Having lots of money does not make somebody a better parent, but a child with wealthy parents is more likely to go to college, and more likely to have economic opportunity once they become an adult.
This truth, complicated and as poorly understood as it is does demonstrate one thing. If you are a low-income parent and you want your kids to be successful, the numbers are not on your side.
Leatrice Fullerton is one of those parents battling the odds. She told us a little bit about herself via our Public Insight Network and we followed up with her to find out what she thinks it takes to raise successful kids on a limited income.
Leatrice has an additional challenge: she's legally blind. That's made it hard to find work since she finished graduate school and earned a masters degree in social work two years ago.
Leatrice wanted to tell her own story, rather than have a reporter tell it for her, because as she says, "There are so many stereotypes that somebody could apply to me. I want people to get past those." So Leatrice and I discussed some questions she could answer about herself and she used SoundCloud to record the answers herself. I then edited the piece.
Listen in as Leatrice describes how she didn't let her disability get in the way of teaching her daughter to read and what else she thinks will make her kids successful adults.
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