It's getting harder to make it in America -- especially if
you're starting out with less. In Foreign Affairs last month,
Lane Kenworthy wrote: As gender and race have become less
significant barriers to advancement, family background, an
obstacle considered more relevant in earlier eras, has
reemerged. Today, people who were born worse off tend to have
fewer opportunities in life. And it's not just in adulthood. The
growing class gap in America is wider than the race gap in
student test scores, said Kenworthy on The Daily Circuit
Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. "A lot of the gap between kids from
low-income homes and those from high-income homes is already
there by the time they enter kindergarten," he said. A study
from the Brookings Institution looked at that childhood gap:
Children from less advantaged families tend to fall behind at
every stage. They are less likely to be ready for school at age
5 (59% vs 72%), to achieve core academic and social competencies
at the end of elementary school (60% vs 77%), to grad