Thanks for this detailed answer. I'm lucky that I don't have to work two jobs, am a native English speaker etc., and this definitely isn't easy for many parent

Thanks for this detailed answer. I'm lucky that I don't have to work two jobs, am a native English speaker etc., and this definitely isn't easy for many parents in tough circumstances. What I don't understand: how is it that school districts spend so much money, yet can't teach kindergarteners to read? If I wanted to run a kindergarten class of 30 kids, where the kids were looked after all day, and taught to read by the end of the year (36 weeks), then I'd need: 1) A space to teach them, with furniture ($2k/week?, i.e. $72k total). 2) Three adults ($75k/year each?, so $225k total). 3) Some books ($3k?). That would cost $300k, or $10k per student per year. This is less than many school districts spend per child. With that setup, at any time, you could have: 1 adult conducting a 1:1 reading lesson 2 adults keeping the other 29 kids occupied Each kid would get 4 x 15 min reading lessons per week. So, even if they were to be absent for 30% of the school year, they would still have plenty of time for 100 lessons. What am I missing? Is there other important stuff they do in kindergarten, that could not be covered well if you were to set things up this way?