I don't disagree with you, but how would that work? How would you select pupils to fill the limited number of places in the desirable schools from a pool of candidates that would be much, much bigger?
It's not a matter of money. DC spends more per student than nearly everybody else. It's a matter of student quality.
Needless to say I reject burfog's claim that we currently have an efficient meritocracy and that the betas, deltas and gammas should just make peace with their stations in life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKTfaro96dg&feature=youtu.be...