otherwise the country won't have a fighting chance. >> suarez: j.peter pham, dominique dieudonne, thank you both. >> thank you. >> thank you for having us. >> brown: now, how educators in chicago are working to give lower-income students a leg up in the pre-kindergarten years and boost their prospects for life. the newshour's special correspondent for education, john merrow, has the story. >> so let's see. see what i can see here. okay. >> reporter: children raised in homes with educated parents swim in a sea of language. a world of vocabulary-rich conversations. >> why don't you show daddy what you want him to do. why don't you demonstrate. >> reporter: the contrast for low-income children could not be more dramatic. by the time children are ready for kindergarten some will have heard millions more words than others. without intervention, this vocabulary gap can lead to a school achievement gap. that in turn can mean college for some while others drop out without even learning how to read. >> the cost of school failure is enormous. it's prisons. its unemployment. it's dissatisfaction i