At that time, education was seen as key to improving someone's situation in life... it was like an unspoken contract.. education will provide opportunities to lift people out of poverty.
It was key to Robert Kennedy's push through the south, and appalachia, to bring the plight of the poor to the attention of the world.
FDR responded to this issue indirectly, through public works that the TVA, that brought electricity for the first time to many areas of the south, long after cities had the same, assumed civilities of modern life.
The more things change...
It is a revolutionary world we live in. Governments repress their people; and millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich; and wealth is lavished on armaments.
For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who enjoy the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked for us.
The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American society. -Robert F. Kennedy