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Something like this has been tried before. It results in the students being institutionalized and prepared for prison.

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/boarding-school-syndrome

Maybe lifting the people of the urban ghettos out of the poverty trap might be a good start.

With little to no education that is quite difficult. There is a serious cultural failing occurring in urban ghettos and until people want to discuss it, nothing will change. For an excellent look at how culture has destroyed a School System and Prevented its change watch Dan Rather's "A National Disgrace" a 2 hour special on the failures of Detroit Public Schools and the culture controlling them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xypiZ-hqdY

Maybe, but single moms with only a high school education who homeschool, will place their kids int he top 60% of publicly educated kids.

Nothing matters more than parental involvement. And if every conversation about public education centered around "we can't do much if you don't care about little Johnny's education" maybe parents would start doing more. I'm not sure that being ambivalent about your child's education isn't a severe form of child neglect.

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