California and Hawaii? I could've told you that

Yes, I'm sad to admit I'm a Californian sometimes. I come from one of the richest school districts that has (had) the world's number one school symphony orchestra but even then.. there were clear delineations between the type of students you saw.
It was really an economic and sometimes racial division line down our school. Those in honors and advanced courses were often from the well-to do families and comprised up of (Whites, Jews and Asians). The more remedial courses were made up of the whole gamut of ethnicities. The interesting pattern though was that there were hardly any hispanic or black students in my classes and the few that were were from more well-off families (one's father was an alumnus from Harvard).
My 9th grade english honors teacher told the students, "I never once had a black student in my class all the years I have been teaching." I guess if you were to take a demographic of my school you would find that the classes were divided economically which also had correlations ethnically. Just an observation so don't go screaming racist.
When I was down in the South, Louisiana they had a very different attitude there towards education especially in the more rural parts of the state. There was almost no money for education and the emphasis was not on cerebral learning, but hands on, practical skills. Such as typing, workshop and farming.