The Mississippi Miracle's False Promise

Something called the "Mississippi Miracle" has been recently been promoted as a blueprint for educational reform in the US.  Nikolas Kristoff writes in the NY Times:
.... it’s extraordinary to travel across this state today and find something dazzling: It is lifting education outcomes and soaring in the national rankings. With an all-out effort over the past decade to get all children to read by the end of third grade and by extensive reliance on research and metrics, Mississippi has shown that it is possible to raise standards even in a state ranked dead last in the country in child poverty and hunger and second highest in teen births.

Yet, the "education problem" in the US, to the extent is has one, is entirely about wealth. Educational outcomes cannot be separated from it, as it is wealth that allows a family to provide a child the appropriate academic preparedness, with all that entails in terms of family cohesiveness, time, emotional stability, etc.
Great, one might say, as improving education will allow increased access to wealth by students. But this is exactly backwards, given that our current economy relies upon millions of low-paying jobs that by definition require millions of families to live in poverty.
Educational equality, especially across races, is absolutely necessary. However we won't get there without transforming our economy into one in which all families have enough wealth to provide a stable, loving and supportive home for children.  Pretending we can do otherwise - paying poverty wages, cutting government aid and supports for low-wealth families - is a Neoliberal fantasy rooted in a faulty premise that we can have our cake and eat it too; we can keep taxes and wages low, and with just the right educational policies ensure equal access to opportunity for all.