“The more education you have, the less likely you are going to live in poverty,” said Linda Gibbs, deputy mayor of New York City’s Department of Health and Human Services at “Attacking Poverty: Implications for Education Policy and Practice,” a recent Steinhardt Education Policy Breakfast Forum.

Along with Steinhardt Professor of Applied Psychology Larry Aber, Gibbs discussed The New York City Anti-Poverty Initiative, newly created to help reduce poverty and increase economic opportunity in New York City. Aber, a scholar on the influence of poverty on education and a member of Mayor Bloomberg’s Commission for Economic Opportunity, was among those whose counsel shaped the initiative. Among the recommendations: preventative strategies to keep at-risk youth in school, and improving the life chances of children under five through universal pre-K education.