My guess is that a lot of people may assume that the majority of those who live in poverty are high-school dropouts—and certainly not college graduates. The fact that a vast majority of poor people finished high school, and quite a few went to college, might mean that economic policies slightly more sophisticated than “educating our way to prosperity” may be required to help people work their way out of poverty in the U.S.
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Literacy & Policy 
Indeed, Jeff. The education nostrum assumes that good jobs are out there, but poor people can’t qualify for them. The poverty rate you cite suggests otherwise.
Some other data I’ve looked at persuade me that we need public policies aimed directly at making more jobs “good jobs.” I took a first crack at this in my own Labor Day post, http://bit.ly/NzterB.
Glad you’re thinking about the issue too.