Brat
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
One proxy for how much importance parents place on education is the level of their own educational attainment. I'm afraid that the 86% of parents with less than a 4 yr degree at the neighborhood school may not have education at the top of their priority list for their kids.
Yes and no, IMHO. It may be that the parent's didn't have the opportunity or dropped out for other reasons (like Bill Gates who was the child of a teacher and a lawyer). There are a lot of parents who are technicians and are in jobs that require ongoing professional development. The core issue is what the parents value and their expectations for their children.