1. Has there ever been a nasty shock to economic systems or unforeseen circumstances that do not affect the poor disproportionately? Of course the poor are more affected, that's always the case.
The issue is how effectively (and quickly) government and people create the circumstances to recover from the situation, and how well they choose to target those who are disproportionately affected.
On that measure, we are not doing a great job with top-down spreading money all over the place -- mostly to those who are know how to take advantage of it. Fed, I'm looking at you.
2. On the topic of education, I really object to people saying that the education system or government is willfully neglecting or trying to "keep down" the already disadvantaged. Effective public education is a very challenging thing to administer, and it also has such a strong component of parental and family and environmental contribution.
Much of the failure (or poor performance) of the public school system for low-income children is also a fault of the breakdown of family discipline and emphasis on education in the lower/poor classes. The classroom + teachers cannot take the place of parents, who are the main enforcer of childrens' progress.
If a family situation is falling apart, an education system cannot patch that hole. And in fact, schools are almost prohibited from playing the surrogate disciplinarian now, out of "equity" concerns. Further, they are handicapped by having to cater to the lowest / most unruly child in a classroom because they have to serve everyone and cannot kick out kids who misbehave and distract everyone else in a classroom.
Our unwillingness to confront these truths means that education will always be failing the poor, and these "K-curves" will be with us for a long time.