On Wednesday, December 4, President Obama gave a speech on economic opportunity that addressed the stalling of economic mobility in the U.S. Calling the steadily widening gap between rich and poor “the defining challenge of our time,” Obama invoked the reforms of his predecessors, including programs implemented by Teddy Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson, as models for action to address the problem. Among other solutions, he proposed raising the minimum wage, closing corporate tax loopholes, and the ongoing implementation of the Affordable Care Act as methods of alleviating hardship and raising Americans out of economic distress.

Obama also stressed the importance of early life opportunities for children, stating, “By the time she turns three years old, a child born into a low-income home hears 30 million fewer words than a child from a well-off family, which means by the time she starts school she’s already behind, and that deficit can compound itself over time.” These remarks echo the research on educational inequality presented in the recent RSF book Whither Opportunity?: Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children’s Life Chances edited by Greg J. Duncan of Northwestern University and Richard Murnane of Harvard University. The most ambitious study of educational inequality to date, the book analyzes how social and economic conditions surrounding schools affect school performance and children’s educational achievement, and finds—as Obama asserted—that rising inequality may now be compromising schools’ functioning, and with it the promise of equal opportunity in America. For example, as the graph below shows, research by contributor Sean Reardon shows that the gap between rich and poor children’s math and reading achievement scores is much larger than it was fifty years ago, and now surpasses the disparity between black and white students.

In his speech, Obama additionally pointed out the enduring success of several War on Poverty programs launched by President Johnson nearly 50 years ago. He noted, “Without Social Security, nearly half of seniors would be living in poverty. Today, fewer than 1 in 10 do. Before Medicare, only half of all seniors had some form of health insurance. Today, virtually all do.” The successes of these programs are outlined in fuller detail in the new RSF volume, Legacies of the War on Poverty (September 2013), edited by Martha Bailey and Sheldon Danziger. Featuring contributions from leading poverty researchers, the book demonstrates that poverty and racial discrimination would likely have been much greater today if the War on Poverty had not been launched. Programs implemented by the Johnson administration, including SNAP, Medicare, and Social Security continue to deliver significant aid to vulnerable members of the population.

With 33% of Americans—approximately 100 million people—currently living below the poverty line, the social science research compiled in recent RSF books like Whither Opportunity? and Legacies of the War on Poverty reaffirm the importance of strong social policies that actively seek to foster economic mobility and reduce the wealth gap. As Obama concluded in his speech, “Government can’t stand on the sidelines.”