I quite agree, but the fundamental reality is that the human resources to provide "boundaries, consistency and discipline, as well as positive feedback for good behavior" for all these kids just don't exist. These are very labor-intensive remedies, and most of these kids have parents who either don't really want them or are pretty messed up themselves. It would be helpful if the public (and private) schools in this country provided these things), though it's of limited use if the kid is going home to a chaotic situation every day. Plenty of kids from lousy homes aren't functioning well in school -- academically or behaviorally -- because they rarely get enough sleep at home. Neighbors in apartment buildings or closely packed rowhouses, and often the kid's parents or mom & boyfriend are blasting stereos at all hours, and having raucous drug and alcohol fueled social gatherings, not to mention putting no time restrictions on the kid's activities or bedtime.
Unless we start confiscating all these kids from their parents, and putting them all in military-style boarding schools (and who would staff such schools? look at the hellholes that foster kids often end up in for "homes"), often a pharmaceutical measure is the best available option. Certainly for a doctor or counselor, who are no position to reform the school system much less the home, the best they can do is to recommend/prescribe drugs. For a kid who doesn't have ADD, but has no way of getting enough sleep, Ritalin will indeed provide a boost and enable more academic achievement than would otherwise occur, improving the chances that the kid can set up and maintain a civilzed home when s/he grows up.
Ritalin will burn such a kid out real fast the same as if you gave them speed every morning. Do it and eventually they will crash mentally and quite possibly physically as well. That is not the intended use for the drug. Besides think for just a moment here. If these kids are in such homes where mom & pop are users etc then who do you think will get the Ritalin?
Also if the kid does have other neurological oriented learning problems like the ones I described in here and you go giving them Ritalin you will only do more damage to them as their sensory processing system is already over taxed {resulting in behavioral problems } and the kid definitely does not need enhanced impulses flooding the damaged or limited in processing capacity sensory receptors as Ritalin and SSRI's would do.
If a kid has a behavioral problem that is not a mental illness or learning disabling disorder then use a counselor {LCSW or Psychologist} and not medications to help them.
I can't disagree with your fundamental premise, but that is treating the symptom, not the illness. You can prescribe pain medication to temporarily relieve the pain caused by cancer, but unless the disease itself is aggressively attacked and rooted out, it will kill you. It's the same thing here, only on a societal level.