The problem is both lib and conservative elites have the wrong solutions to the problem. Libs think a lot more money and more privileges will work. They clearly won't.
Conservative elites think better schools and emphasis on family values will work. That will likewise fail. All the people in the inner-city already have the choice to send their kids to better schools. (Read Robert Weissberg's "Bad Students, Not Bad Schools") They, the parents, don't care. They don't show up now for their kid's PTAs.
What we, the nation, are up against is a very large percentage of the population, The Black Underclass, for whom nothing can be done. That's the ugly truth that the elites don't want to face.