My mom grew up in poverty in Oklahoma - like Dust Bowl, nine people in one room kind of place - and the way she got out of poverty was through education. My dad grew up without a dad, with very little and he also made his way out through education.

Garner frames her parents’ life stories as evidence of education’s power as a route to social mobility. By invoking Dust Bowl–era deprivation and an absent father, she emphasizes structural hardship rather than individual comfort, then contrasts it with the transformative leverage of schooling. The quote also functions as autobiographical grounding: her own opportunities are presented as downstream of her parents’ educational ascent, implying a moral obligation to value learning and to support policies or philanthropy that widen access. The emphasis on both mother and father underscores education as a cross-cutting remedy—capable of countering poverty, family instability, and limited resources.