By Morton Kondracke

Political Washington, D.C., was understandably fixated on the outcome of the June 6 congressional race in San Diego as a harbinger for November’s elections. But the defeat of California’s Proposition 82 could end up being more important for the country’s future.

Proposition 82 would have committed America’s largest state to provide preschool education for all its 4-year-olds. It was rejected by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent.

That’s important because a mounting body of academic evidence shows that investment in quality early childhood education would be America’s surest way of closing a growing opportunity gap between its social classes – a gap likely to grow wider as the globalized economy places ever-greater emphasis on high skills.

After reviewing numerous studies for the book “Opportunity in America,” to be published in September with Princeton University, Brookings Institution scholar Isabel Sawhill told me this week that “the place where you’re likely to get the biggest bang for the buck is making investments in children from less-advantaged families.”

She explained, “They start out way behind even before they enter school and they stay there. These gaps persist through the school years. If you don’t deal with them before they enter school, you’re stuck with a very stratified society.”