To paraphrase Stacey Abrams, schools should be "cathedrals." We should spare no expense or effort to bring to every student the kind of education that upper-class and private-school students receive. One's parents' income should not determine the quality of the learning one receives.

However, we don't care for all of America's children; most people care only for their own. Further, as long as education is seen as a vast competition for income and prestige, we will always want to withhold those goodies from some children. We could be so much better as a nation than we are.