I was in a small pilot program of 6 middle school students who were bussed to the high school to take advanced math. 3 of us ended up regularly using heroin before graduation. I have a lot of good explanations for this having watched them descend and none of them line up with reduced education, social services, or ignorant Bible-thumpers.
Short answer: end the phenomena of latchkey kids. The main difference in the kids who flourished and moved up in their lives and those who floundered was the presence of a stay-at-home parent in addition to one with a steady income that supported the family. The main difference in the good and bad school districts in my area were the number of full time parents that were available to participate in the school, extra-curricular activities, and parent-teacher organizations. Failing that (because the two income family is seemingly required in many areas), line up the public school schedule with the parents' work and commute schedules.
For some context, here's an award winning documentary about a high school in an adjacent county having a massive syphilis outbreak while I was in school: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yux7hVgDPa8
I spent a lot of time in Alabama. There is nothing to defend there. They spend their money on 100,000 person Football stadiums. There are 3 in Alabama. 2 inside towns of 20,000 people or less. Their economic improvement plan is to spend more money on football, and keep printing people's pictures in the paper when they are arrested.
Our economy is becoming increasingly centralized and increasingly winner-take-all.
There are ever fewer highly overheated markets and enormous areas where opportunities are static or declining.
What's more, I'm still not convinced that we need 150 million software developers in this country, or even doctors, or certainly not lawyers. More education and embracing the "knowledge economy" may only work for some of us, for now, because the vast majority haven't piled in yet.
Also that contempt that the OP talked about? Your comment is absolutely drenched in it.
You show a fundamental misunderstanding of modern, non-stereotypical, southern life.
ignorance and hate
Go to the south and you see this in action every second of every day. The south hates education, hates social services, hates them thar books that don't have Jesus in them.
And, lo and behold, Alabama is like 49th in education, but it's also super high in people who are on permanent disability and Oxy. Why? Because the politicians in Alabama get elected for saying "Jesus," and the first thing they do when elected is gut education and social services, making the problem worse, breeding more deeply ignorant people, who then vote for yet another Jesus hugger who cuts their social services even further.
There's a reason these states are fucked. It's their own faults. City folk have tried to help for centuries. Country folk generally don't want that city folk help, especially because it ain't coming with Jesus attached.