The impact of bad schools systems hits poor students disproportionately. Imagine two school systems that otherwise have the same general qualities. In one you

The impact of bad schools systems hits poor students disproportionately. Imagine two school systems that otherwise have the same general qualities. In one you have children who have wealthy, educated parents. Parents who read. Parents who take an active interest in their children's education. Parents who encourage their children to learn independent of school. Those children are going to acquire an education more or less independent of the quality of their teachers. They will be able to get as much out of the text books as they would from the teachers, because they are more likely to read on their own, more likely to spend the effort doing the work, and more likely to care (or have their parents care) about learning. If those children have bad teachers it's a momentary setback, and something they can often overcome with the help of their parents, fellow students, and self-study. In the other you have children who have poor, uneducated parents. Those children are almost completely and utterly dependent on their teachers. They're not going to read at home, they're parents may not have a strong interest in their education (assuming that the school is handling it), and so on. If those students encounter a bad teacher it translates to a huge setback. They have no support network to deal with bad teacher, it could easily cause them to fall behind or, worse, to lose interest in school and education.