Problem being an extremely significant portion of that blank slate is written before the child even enters school, let alone makes it to middle and high school,

Problem being an extremely significant portion of that blank slate is written before the child even enters school, let alone makes it to middle and high school, and even during those times it is impossible for a school to make up for a horrible home life. We single out and spread stories about people who raised themselves up because it's not the norm. The vast majority of people whose parents don't talk to them as infants, don't read to them as toddlers, don't listen to them as children, and don't keep from hitting them as teenagers will radically underperform both as students and as adults. Mucking about with the education of students who haven't been sabotaged by their parents is governmental thumb-twiddling.