You have a one-track mind...the fundamental issue in France, and I would argue in the USA as well,

is Wealth Inequality...

For the French, here's their situation...and for the majority of them, who aren't lucky enough to have been born with silver spoons, any hope they have of improvement is a superior education...hence the widespread demonstrations...co-opted by outside political factions.

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AI Overview

Yes, wealthy French people and communities receive significantly more educational resources, stability, and public investment than poorer ones. While the French government officially champions a system of republican equality and directs extra funding to disadvantaged areas through "priority education networks" (REP and REP+), a profound divide remains in how resources are actually distributed on the ground.
Structural issues, staffing disparities, and higher education paths widen the gap between affluent and low-income students in France:

1. Massive Inequities in Higher Education Spending

Research by the World Inequality Lab shows that public spending on higher education is highly regressive. Because wealthy students are disproportionately accepted into elite, highly funded programs (such as Grandes Écoles and selective Master’s tracks), the state ends up spending far more on them. On average, public higher education investment amounts to €27,000 per student for the top 10% of households, compared to just €7,000 to €8,000 for the bottom 30%.

2. Chronic Teacher Shortages and High Turnover

While the national government allocates additional funds to schools in poorer suburbs to reduce class sizes, these schools struggle to retain qualified staff.
• The Experience Gap: Senior, higher-paid teachers utilize the national point system to transfer to safer, wealthier school districts. As a result, schools in poorer areas are left with a high turnover of young, inexperienced, and lower-paid teachers.
• Unreplaced Absences: When teachers fall ill in low-income zones like Seine-Saint-Denis, they often go unreplaced for months, causing students to lose vital instructional hours.

3. Crumbled Infrastructure vs. Private Flight

Widespread student and teacher protests have brought intense scrutiny to the physical decay of schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods. High schools in lower-income areas frequently face overcrowding (up to 35+ students per class), broken heating, mold, and pest infestations. Facing these decaying public facilities, wealthy parents are increasingly abandoning the state system for private institutions, which now educate more than 50% of France's most economically advantaged pupils.

4. Severe Social Determinism

The OECD's PISA studies consistently rank France as one of the developed countries where a student's socioeconomic background has the strongest influence on their academic success. The gap in math and reading performance between rich and poor communities is massive, and it typically widens as children grow older rather than closing
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