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"Jenna Keller Berdel, a strategy officer with the Lumina Foundation, an Indianapolis-based private foundation that focuses on getting more low-income students to enroll and complete college, said she hopes groups working to boost education focus on low-income students."

"All students deserve an equal opportunity to pursue a college education. State policymakers and Florida's public universities should be especially sensitive to the needs of black, Hispanic and other minority students, who attend many college campuses in numbers that remain far too low. However, the guidelines approved by Florida lawmakers in 2011 and set to take effect July 1 will ensure Bright Future's continued survival a highly uncertain outcome without this action."

"The bill would severely cut back exit tests, and lower the number of courses students must take in math and science. The proposed changes come as some policy experts are challenging the role of the advanced math in preparing students for college and career. But it has raised alarm from business leaders and national advocacy groups concerned about how the changes might affect academic achievement in the state, particularly for low-income and minority students."

"Recent events point to the misuse of test results. Both houses of the Tennessee legislature passed a bill to punish the families of low-scoring, low-income public school students by reducing Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (welfare) by 30 percent. This move transforms the purpose of state examinations, from whole school accountability to family retaliation."

"What we all know is when you leave it up to kids and schools, the poor kids and kids of color will be disproportionately not in the curriculum that could make the most difference for them,' said Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a nonprofit group that advocates for racial minorities and low-income children."

"Because educational opportunity has much to do with upward mobility, it is distressing that low-income students who qualify for top-tier colleges rarely end up there. Flummoxed by the admissions process and scared off by what they think will be unmanageable costs, many of these students settle for lesser colleges with lower graduation rates, less financial aid (which means more debt) and less marketable degrees."

"Poverty is not an excuse for children, parents or teachers, and we all take great comfort in the extraordinary journeys that some take to success. But poverty can produce enormous challenges, especially when communities and schools lack the systems and supports that teachers, parents and children need."

"Advancing through the state Legislature is a bill (SB 0132 and HB 0261) that would cut one-third of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits to families whose kids make poor grades or skip school too much. It smacks of a crush-the-weak fascism, a spit-on-you disdain for the poor, and reveals an obliviousness to the complexities of 21st century poverty."

"In discussing the administration's proposed 2014 budget, Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters that raising the federal tobacco tax by 94 cents would generate $75 billion over the next decade, enough to pay for federal subsidies to states to enroll all low-income and some moderate-income 4-year-olds in quality preschool."

"Putting food on the table could soon depend on your child's report card in Tennessee, where the state legislature is considering a bill that would make state assistance to needy families contingent upon children's school performance."

"The Wilson County Children's Music Association will pattern itself after similar programs in bigger cities that provide musical opportunities for underprivileged youth."

"The greatest increases in enrollment have occurred among the lowest-income groups over the 2006-11 period; income groups that fall below the median household income threshold not only make up the majority share of the total enrollment, but account for the greatest percentage increase in enrollment at Virginia's public higher education institutions. Lower-income groups are disproportionately affected by changes in costs."