ISU President Steven Leath announced last week that he would offer free tuition to Iowa State to some Des Moines elementary school students. In a plan called ISU 4U Promise, students attending King Elementary School and Moulton Extended Learning Center have the opportunity to earn full tuition scholarships for four years to Iowa State, if they meet certain standards on attendance, behavior and ACT scores over their years in the school system.

For those, as well as countless other reasons, the full ride is by no means a free ride. These 400 to 500 students will not be allowed to complete only the bare minimum requirements at even the middle school. Therefore, by the time that high school graduation comes around, these students will have worked hard for their reward.

King and Moulton schools were selected because they are located in Des Moines’ inner city and are more diverse than others. The schools were also selected because, in a previous interview with the Daily, Andrew Wade, dean of students at Moulton, said many of the neighborhoods around the school are in poverty. This new program will provide the opportunity to go to college for many kids who would not otherwise be able.

About $2 million every year will be needed to fund these childrens’ scholarships once they reach college. However, that money will be funded through private fundraising rather than using the university’s existing funds or scholarships. This means these additional students will be able to receive a college education without taking away from others’ scholarships or the university as a whole.

The most effective — and organic — means of defeating poverty is through education of the upcoming generation. In her book “Changing the Odds for Children at Risk,” Susan B. Neuman says “America’s poor children do not fare well in our society. The odds are if a child is born poor, he’s likely to stay poor.” This assertion is supported by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins studied 790 students from the Baltimore area, beginning in 1982, when the students were in first grade and ending with the subjects at the age of 28 or 29.

According to the study performed by Karl Alexander and a university report written by Jill Rosen, only 33 students who began in low-income situations worked their way into the high-income brackets and “if family had no bearing on children’s mobility prospects, almost 70 would be expected.”

Additionally, the report finds that “Of the children from low-income families, only 4 percent had a college degree at age 28, compared to 45 percent of the children from higher-income backgrounds.”

The disparity between the upward mobility for children who start poor as compared to those who start in middle or high-income households is evident. Therefore, this assistance is well placed among the people who clearly will be able to make the most use of it.

Neuman sums up the attitude of these high-risk students toward education perfectly by saying “… he’ll find his skills are hopelessly behind his peers, only to drop further as academic standards get higher, his options increasingly narrowed to either staying behind, giving up or dropping out.”

Therefore, it is imperative that these children — at least those of the group that are impoverished — understand that there is a means for them to access higher learning if they apply themselves and consistently strive to succeed in their education.

This action — much like that of President Obama’s proposal of nationwide access to free community college — shows a promising investment in the country’s youth. We find that these actions are not only easy to support, but also that they are integral to the continued prosperity of the United States of America.