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Y'know, it's funny. Society at large is becoming more and more anti-intellectual. Jerry Springer and The Osbournes have attracted huge audiences. Innumeracy and scientific illiteracy are high and going higher. On the other hand, books and newspapers are downright cheap. A great many good textbooks in ageless subjects like reading are out of copyright, and could be reprinted for next to nothing. More recent texts which have fallen from favor could be obtained and fixed up for the price of some bindery work. The opportunity for some hitherto-disadvantaged group to leap to the top of the educational achievement ladder has never been better! If some poor, downtrodden community (such as Benton Harbor, or even Detroit) had the will and the cohesion to insist on education and hold it up as one of their primary values, they could vault right over the majority culture and put themselves just below the elite. It probably wouldn't take more than half a generation. Heck, it could have been done at any time in the last 30-40 years. This has not happened, and the word I hear is that bookish students in many minority communities have to conceal their capabilities to avoid being harassed. Even more so than in the majority culture, these people devalue education. Entitlements won't fix this. Change must come from within.
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