My disdain for the poor.

[Abbey Marie]

the sollution involves a good, equal, education in the elementary and high school years.

which does involve via laws, some federal dollars now, about 7% of the bill for education, I believe the states/towns/cities supply over 90% of the cost of education....or something like this....and according to my interpretation of the constitution, education is delegated to the states, not the Feds, but setting this aside...

If every citizen had an equally good education in their youth, then we would not have as many problems with poverty, later in life....imho.

I must strongly disagree with your premise. Our district still buses kids from downtown to the suburbs, and vice versa. Exactly the same amount of dollars are spent on straight education, but minorities in reality receive more dollars due to busing done for their benefit, free or reduced breakfast and lunches, special services such as one on one mentoring, etc., etc. YET, black kids still under-perform by a large margin, and are disproportionately high in discipline problems.

The reasons are simple, IMO:

1. Education must be valued at home. This includes parents showing interest in school work, caring about grades.
2. Education must be valued in the culture. Accusing a good black student of "acting white" doesn't help the situation.
3. There needs to be a stable home life, preferably with a present and involved father, too.
4. There must be a positive attittude towards authority at home, including school admin and teachers.
5. Reading should be modeled, and encourged at a very young age.

If these things are not present, there isn't much the schools can do but babysit future dropouts, while our tax dollars get thrown at a problem that can't be solved by tax dollars. Oh, and that means, at least in our district, less money available for the upper end students, who are viewed as being able to take care of themselves in an AP Calculus class of 37 students, for example.