The Childhood Lottery

There is absolutely no way you can create an equal playing field. You can try but you wont succeed. If you have a child with two parents engaged in their education/ life then they have won a lottery compared to parents not engaged. And that is the most basic of comparisons, add in abuse, numerous partners with access to the home, drug use, and on and on.
I dont mean to be defeatist but without state control that is authoritarian in the extreme the playing field will remain unequal.

Yes that is defeatist- crikey. There are lots of ways governments can try to create a more equal playing field even though it won't ever be completely equal. Neither does there need to be an authoritarian government to achieve things. It's more a case of having a government that is committed to putting in things that can increase social mobility and increase opportunities for the less advantaged

Just look at the WW11 (conservative) and early post war ( Labour) government efforts
1) introduced the NHS free at the point of delivery,
2) 1944 Education Act
3) massive social housing programmes for the troops returning from the war
4) introduction of welfare state and safety net,
5) Higher Education grants

All these things had huge long term benefits. But politics, particularly the last 20 years has increasingly become more short term and less focussed on social mobility. Austerity has turned social mobility backwards and child poverty has increased.

^ I dont mean to be defeatist but without state control that is authoritarian in the extreme the playing field will remain unequal.^

Are you suggesting that the post WW2 attempts to level the playing field (as listed by LemonJam) were authoritarian in tendency and so undesirable? Should they have just left the ‘five giants’ to run their course?

The "playing field" will never be equal but without government intervention it becomes increasingly unequal. IMO Democracy is underpinned by citizens believing they have a stake in their society and once large portions of the society feel "left behind" they will vote for populist politicians who promise them benefits that they usually can't deliver and give them scapegoats on which to focus their anger. We only have to look around to see that happening here and in many other Western countries.
We have an increasingly divided society which has increasingly seen the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, this is a recipe for disaster and in the long term, it benefits no one. There has to be government intervention because market based economies do not solve the problem, they exacerbate it.

The government does what it can to even the odds for most children but will never succeed with all.

I have a niece, single parent, has never worked regularly, she gets all the benefits and nice social housing, however the children are well looked after and progressing through school well. Realistically I don't think her situation could be improved, all we can do is make it available for more, but that costs money.