Too often, poverty plays a role in educational opportunities. In our own community, one in three young children (ages birth to 5) live in poverty and are in danger of falling behind before they even enter kindergarten. Further, 4 out of 5 young children in our community do not have access to high-quality early education before kindergarten. Often, when children enter school behind, they rarely catch up. Research indicates that children who are struggling readers in 1st grade are 88% more likely to be struggling readers in 4th grade. When children struggle to read in 4th grade, they are four times more likely to drop out of high school. That’s why there is so much attention on 3rd grade reading scores in our community and across the nation because if children are not on track by the end of third grade, their chances for success decrease substantially. It is far easier to reach children starting from birth with quality early education experiences than to try and catch them up later with interventions in the kindergarten to third grade years.