JROTC / WORKING CLASS POOR - fighting to maintain the status quo

Enora Brown brings up some difficult points in her essay "Freedom for Some, Discipline for 'Others': The Structure of Inequity in Education" (Chapter 18). On a side note - I'm wondering if the names of the two schools "mountainview" and "groundview" were each school's actual name respectibly or if the names were applied simply for this essay - I ask because the contrast between the two names seems almost too perfect for this topic.

Anyway, I could guess what the differences between the two schools were going to be before I read the essay (as I'm sure everyone could) - the affluent school was more of a junior liberal arts campus than anything - with freedom and plenty of great cutting edge rescources at the student's disposal. Teachers made more money, almost everyone was white - blah blah blah. This stood in stark contrast to the bleak picture that was painted of "groundview," with it's 100% black student population, metal detectors at the doors, and rote-type learning apparatuses in the classrooms. We've all heard this before - however, what I found provoking about this essay was the juxtaposition of the ruling elite (mountainview) with the JROTC working class poor. Before it was explicitly stated I was thinking to myself that it seems like the system is set up to send the poor people out on the front lines of battle to do the dirty work in order to keep the ruling class in power. Then the author said this - in more eloquent words. She used terms like monopoly of culture which I found both fitting and biting. There were great points brought up here - I just feel like the situation is almost beyond repair after reading these kinds of things because the class system is so entrenched I dont't possibly see how it could ever be changed. Society can't just raise black people / working class-poor / etc. up without asking the people at the top to give up a bit of their privelage (and by "their" I'm icluding myself in the group as well), and I think it's obvious that those in power won't just give it up for the hell of it. I agree that something needs to be done - I'm just not sure what that is.