Just because some cultures living in poverty still place a strong emphasis on educational attainment doesn't mean that poverty plays no role in the achievement

Just because some cultures living in poverty still place a strong emphasis on educational attainment doesn't mean that poverty plays no role in the achievement gap. Poverty produces cultures that are hostile to education. Not 100% of the time obviously. There are exceptions. But those exceptions prove the rule. I don't think we're incapable of solving poverty. We've been steadily eroding it piecemeal for centuries. There are new, innovative policy proposals being thrown out all the time to erode it further, of which my personal favorite is a universal basic income, or citizens dividend. That would completely end poverty. All we need is the political will. The way I see it, if it happened for Social Security, it can happen for that some day.