What I'm really postulating that the only way to improve the educational outcomes of students that come from families who don't emphasize education is to surround them with students who come from families that do emphasize education.
So my initial statement assumes that poor students come from families that don't emphasize education, while rich students come from families that do. That is a generalization that applies primarily to black and Hispanic students, as there are many poor Asian immigrant families who emphasize education - their children have gone on to be quite successful. But as we all know, the educational problem is with black and Hispanic students. When you eliminate them from the picture, American students do quite well in comparison to European and Asian students[0].
> there is a very good non-racist reason for this: while their children might improve the ghetto children's outcomes, the ghetto children might harm the richer children's outcomes.
Yes, this is certainly possible, and is the most common argument utilized by the rich parents when faced with charges of racism towards poor blacks and Latinos.
0: http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/12/amazing-truth-abou...