For decades, wealthy children have far outperformed poor ones in school, creating a chasm that researchers and advocates say only exacerbates society’s inequalities. Attempts to improve school readiness and thus close the gap have occupied experts and politicians for years. In 1998, California passed a cigarette tax to fund early childhood education. “It’s not a huge change, but it’s more striking because it’s in the opposite direction than we’d seen,” Reardon said. “The skills that kids have when they enter kindergarten can be very predictive of how they’ll progress through school,” Reardon said.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 31, 2016 03:15 UTC