On Tuesday, the New York Times published an in-depth feature on working life in America with a headline that reads: “Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the Solution to Poverty. They’re Not.”

In it, Matthew Desmond notes that nearly a third of America’s workforce earns less than $12 an hour and nearly none of their employers offers health insurance. These are the country’s “working poor.” In a strong economy with low unemployment, finding a job isn’t a problem. In fact, millions of job vacancies go unfilled because of a dearth of qualified candidates. The jobs available to people without much education, however, don’t pay enough to live on.

That’s why the Colorado Department of Higher Education has been on a mission to establish the link between educational attainment and economic prosperity.

Read more at The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.