As a third COVID wave sweeps the United States, achievement gaps between higher- and lower-performing students are widening. Children already struggling in school are falling so far behind they may never catch up. A recent investigation estimates that missed instruction for elementary school children could result in 5.53 million years of life lost due to lower life expectancy linked to decreased educational attainment. Our best chance for averting an educational disaster: launch a national tutoring program. In fact, the current crisis is even more critical than it seems: long before COVID, the educational performance of disadvantaged children was much worse – and achievement gaps much larger – than most people realize. Despite massive public investment, now at over $700 billion per year, schools have been failing disadvantaged children to a stunning degree for decades. I’ve published an online map revealing how poorly millions of America’s children were performing just last year. It shows that more …