Along these lines...

Quote
If every child arrived in school well-nourished, healthy and ready to learn, from a family with a stable home and a steady income, many of our educational problems would be solved. And that would be a miracle.

I work in family/education research, and can tell you that there is a huge pay-off when we invest in birth to 3 education and intervention. It's expensive, though, so no one wants to do it. Still, it's much, much better to get these kids started off on the right foot than to try to fix it later. No one gets this or at least no one WANTS to get it.

Geoffrey Canada, whose programs have been incredibly successful with poor kids in Harlem, starts before birth. You can read ablout it here:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/schoolhouse/archive/2008/09/12/the-zone.aspx