Ah yes, I'm sure the whole thing would have worked politically if only they'd also tried to set up a system in which rich parents paid poor parents in order to get better start times. Conveniently, this would also mean that the students would be income-segregated so rich students would not have to be mixed in with poor students.

</snark>

... I also took economics in college. To me it seems obvious that calling a fanciful solution like this "obvious" except for "human pride" is woefully inaccurate.