February is Black History Month. Today we celebrate Thomas Sowell. Sowell grew up in poverty and later became an economics professor. He is one of the crown jewels of economics that does not get enough media attention. Below is an article covering Sowell’s life and a YouTube video. Pay close attention to minute 12:10 to 15:45 in the video where Sowell discusses education.

The video features the following quote “With respect to education, Tom would say it doesn’t make any difference how much money you put into education but if there are not some basic factors that you must take into account that is, in order for a kid to get a good education somebody must make him go to bed on time. Somebody must make him do his homework. Somebody must make him mind the teacher. Somebody has to get him up in the morning. And if those things are not done, I don’t care how much money you put into education you’re not going to get very good results. And that is precisely what we see.”

https://www.hoover.org/news/black-history-month-profile-thomas-sowell