[lonestar]

"Oh well, better for the rest of us."

Do you really think so? I'd prefer to live in a society where everyone was well-educated, or at least enjoyed learning.

I think you'd find there is some spillover benefit for yourself to be had from "these low-income and minority kids" receiving high-quality education.

[olegk]

I'd prefer to live in the society where all people would have unlimited supply of food, water, heath care, wouldn't kill each other, have lots of fun.

Unfortunately this kind of "magical" thinking is a very weak argument, and just doesn't work.

Welcome to the real world.

[anigbrowl]

If we're being hard-headed, we should also consider the possibility that intelligence is just not evenly distributed, and while schools should seek to improve as many students by as much as possible, we need an economic infrastructure that can make productive and self-sustaining use of less intelligent people as well as smart ones.

In short, dumb people are not going away, so there needs to be a means for them to earn a legal living.

[olegk]

Well, they way system is set up right now, it obviously doesn't work, wouldn't you agree? Basically, the government is throwing money at poor/minorities, and they end up having more kids.

Same exact thing happens in African countries. Every time somebody donates money/food, it goes towards procreation, not improvement of the quality of life or education.

I remember one successful African story. This group of volunteers instead of building a water well decided to involve the residents in the process. So they served as architects, while locals were doing all the hard labor. The results were really good - locals knew how to support the well. They became self-sufficient.

That, in my opinion, is the solution. It's a slow process, but I don't see many alternatives.