This paper examines some of the dominant discourses related to poverty and education such as those offered by the prominent political ideologies, those presented by educators who write about poverty, those embedded in popular culture, and those surrounding current teacher education curricula. Furthermore, this study evaluates the impact these discourses have on teacher education students, and ultimately on the students they engage. The results of a 15-item survey, distributed to teacher education students at a Midwest university, reveal their perceptions on poverty and offer many potential departure points for educators to consider. Additionally, this paper analyzes the implications of the data for teacher education curricula. The results of the study revealed that teacher education students employ conventional discourses and idioms in their understanding of poverty. The study makes clear that to adequately deal with issues of poverty in their classrooms, teacher education students need to be conversant with the multiple discourses of poverty and require opportunities to develop empathetic responses to poverty and learn to think about poverty from multiple points of view. Additionally, teachers need to learn a range of strategies that will shatter their assumptions about poverty and in turn prepare them to respond in a variety of ways.