"Why, as a society, are we spending all of our resources on the bottom of the class?"

Because back in the 1970's some fool decided that every kid was "special" and "capable of doing anything if they just put their mind to it", and for some reason it caught on, even though it's so obviously nonsense.

Of course, now those same people are the old people that sit around complaining that the youth of the world seemed screwed up, and how their generation never did anything to create less than the perfect chance for us all. Go figure.