"The central problem in American higher education today is that most of the people running things in politics, business, and academe come from the first group, but most of the actual students enrolled in college are in the second group. The former cannot see the latter, because they are blinded by their own experience. And so they think the problems of the many don't exist."<p>This is a typical problem, that you can call "separate connected components" problem: people tend to associate with people like themselves, so are very surprised at results dealing with other social groups that they are not connected. When Bush won the elections, I remember many Democrat friends asking, in bewilderment, "Nobody I know voted for this guy, who voted for him?"<p>The remedy is to go out of your comfort zone and try to connect with the other groups. During my volunteering with an inner city high school on FIRST Robotics Competition, I am amazed at the hard work and innovative spirit that the students are putting in, yet they won't be able to go to a good college due to many reasons. And going to a good college is shown as the <i>only</i> was to salvation to these kids, alternate paths such as entrepreneurship are not described at all.