When poverty cripples. (In Focus).

For years educators have known that kids from poor families start school on shakier academic ground than kids from more well-to-do families. Now, a detailed report confirms it--and the news is bleaker than even some teachers may have thought.

Called Inequality at the Starting Gate, the report by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, found that children in the bottom fifth economic bracket scored 60 percent lower in math and reading upon entering kindergarten than children from the highest bracket. Worse, these same poor children--most of whom are minorities--start their education at "consistently" lower-quality schools that are already stymied …