Take 6 minutes and watch this video.

I'm all for improving our public schools. I want my children's teachers to be better than me.

But what if our focus on reforming our schools is a distraction from addressing income inequity and poverty?

Poverty isn't an excuse -- but it does explain why so many families and schools are struggling to set children up for success.

The most important problem facing American children today is not bad teachers -- it's poverty. 

Canadians, and more specifically Albertans, are not immune to this. Take 9 minutes and watch this video to see how two schools in Calgary can be so very different.

I could care less about the achievement gap. If we want to set all children up for success then we have to care far more about the opportunity gap.

The good news is that we don't have to choose between improving our schools and addressing poverty -- but let's not pretend that education can lift people out of poverty.

Without equity, excellence is a pipe dream.