And there is only so much spending money on schools can do if the child’s home life is dysfunctional. My daughter worked with a 7 year old boy a couple of years ago (she was a reading aide at the time), and she used to call me crying because this child was doomed. Both parents in jail, he lived with an elderly grandparent who had 3 other kids in a 1 bedroom apartment, clothes were dirty, he was always hungry…
We haven’t found many ways to deal with that societal problem, although education can help.