Serious concerns are being raised by the poor and uneducated underclass in the United States. Four main points are given which expand upon these concerns. (1) The affluent and middle class white U.S. population does not have enough interest and commitment to the poor and undereducated population to pay the price it will take to educate the U.S. underclass. The people do not believe they have the resources to spend in this way, and politicians are unable to change their minds. (2) The nature of the problem of educating the U.S. underclass is much more complex and multifaceted than most citizens are willing to admit. Higher academic standards, better pay for teachers, and other governor-led, state-level educational reforms will help, but will be inadequate. (3) The problem is not going to be solved by recruiting more and better minority group members to teaching. There are two reasons for this: the educational community does not have the means to recruit enough good minority teachers; and recruiting minority teachers is not sufficient to solve the problem. Rising academic standards, more verbal-based tests, five and six years of preparation, and low financial attraction discourage prospective minority teachers. (4) Schools and teaching are not strong enough to succeed with the task of educating the U.S. underclass in the near future. A five-part agenda for social studies educators is proposed which advocates the need to give to preservice and inservice social studies teachers the facts about poverty in the United States and to rekindle the commitment to equality and justice for everyone; the need to teach that social problems hurt all; the need to teach about economic and racial subgroups in the United States and about multicultural understanding; the need to teach that solving tough problems takes time and commitment; and the need to adjust the perspectives and priorities of social studies educators. (APG)