For decades, we’ve been relying on K-12 to level the playing field and ensure that every child has an equal opportunity at the starting gate. But after years of “school reform,” along with public spending that now totals roughly $700 billion annually, large achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged children persist. It’s increasingly clear that one core problem is this: School can’t give children an equal opportunity at the starting gate because children’s start doesn’t occur in school. Indeed, a substantial body of science strongly suggests that the foundation for educational opportunity is laid not at age five — or four or three — but beginning at birth.

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