Intelligence

Going to school in a somewhat affluent part of Austin, I see really intelligent students, and students that are labeled as "Dumb". And I am struck by  how similar they are.
Obviously, the more intelligent students are the ones that do the work, but why don't the the "Dumb" students just do the work. Aren't they fed up with being thought of as stupid? Don't they want to do something with their lives?
I don't think that it is their faults. Actually, scratch that, I do think that they had a choice about whether they   do well or not, obviously there isn't some person in their house stopping them from doing their homework or studying, unless child abuse is accruing. I personally think that they are all different and have different reasons for not doing well, from laziness to having a deceased family  member. But these are just people in good districts, think about bad ones.
I think that the main problem with bad public schools is not enough funding, although that is a problem. I think the biggest problem is they aren't using the money they have well. if you look at how much money is put into each student, you wonder why they aren't excelling. If I had it my way, that money would go to getting really good teachers. Of course, other supplies are needed too, but you can learn with a great teacher and terrible supplies better that you can learn with great supplies and a terrible teacher. Of course, some schools it's not an either/or situation, in which case the school probably isn't receiving the funding due to low test scores, in which case it shouldn't be ignored but whatever is impeding academic excellence should be addressed.