at America’s 146 most-selective institutions, just three percent of the student body comes from the poorest quartile while 74 percent come from the richest quartile.

This is why, for a lot of us that teach about social/policy problems, discussions are often absurdly absent any real understanding of what life is like for those in deep poverty. Tropes of “welfare queens” and “anchor babies” are reinforced by the fact that there are few people anywhere in the academy with any true legitimacy to challenge them.

From Richard Kahlenberg via Matt Yglesias