[psranga]

The poor are used a human shield because if the article had said something like:

  education is a good with almost-inelastic demand, hence
  we can raise prices arbitrarily and in addition
  eliminate government support for it :)

then they would not have been taken seriously.

Wrt "rich", other posts indicate that $70K/yr household income as the upper limit for financial aid in CA. That's hardly "rich".