A lot of good points, some of which I'm going to have to digest a bit.

Obviously, summer school is a good fix for some of these problems, and that's how it's handled in my district. I have never seen a school too broke to hold some summer classes, but I suppose it's possible.

Our pre-K screening program to decide if a kid is ready is informal, with discussions between parents and teachers, but no formal "screening" per se. It seems to work. Parents are often the best judge of these things.

I agree that on a second look, we don't have enough of the story here to render a judgment one way or the other.