Surprise! Poor students hurt themselves and others

Joanne Jacobs has a pair of doozies today:

People laid off from factory jobs can’t compete for new jobs without a GED. As I recall, they were the Kool Kidz back in high school ("school is for suckers"); who’s Kool now? (As I drive by in my new BMW, sucker!)
Students from Troubled Backgrounds affect the performance of everyone else in the class. Yeah, if only because everyone else is annoyed that the spineless faculty won’t do something about that a$$hole. So of course, they drop out, and 20 years later come back whining because they need a GED.