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"As Oregon lawmakers consider more changes in a 50-year-old program that pays property taxes for low-income seniors and people with disabilities, they heard good news from two reports. According to the Oregon Department of Revenue, the program is back in balance after getting down to zero about two years ago."

"If children are prepared at home and in the community they are more likely to arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed. But if children are exposed to poverty and neglect they are more likely to remain behind their peers, and their chances are greater of having difficulty as they become adults who want to participate in the workforce, he said."

"Nearly four out of five Latino students were enrolled in predominantly minority schools in 2010, according to the Civil Rights Project, based at the University of California at Los Angeles. About 7 percent of those students went to intensely segregated minority schools' - ones where less than 10 percent of students were white and a large majority of students lived in poverty."

"But although the program is thriving, it could be hurt by federal budget cuts. Earlier this month, Congress failed to avoid across-the-board reductions, known as the sequester cuts, and programs such as Good Beginnings are nervously awaiting the trickle-down effects."

"Colleges often make themselves appear less expensive - and more attractive to cash-poor families - through promotional materials and financial aid letters that hide the true costs. Last month the federal government unveiled an online college scorecard that can help families cut through some of the confusion."

"The widening gap in life expectancy between these two adjacent Florida counties reflects perhaps the starkest outcome of the nation's growing economic inequality: Even as the nation's life expectancy has marched steadily upward, reaching 78.5 years in 2009, a growing body of research shows that those gains are going mostly to those at the upper end of the income ladder."

"Suburban districts for years have been screaming for more flexibility from state mandates. Urban districts have sought recognition for the fact that they educate more needy students. Brown's new formula for funding schools should satisfy both."

"Not so long ago, some Texas public schools had a bad habit of channeling minority high school students into bricklaying and cosmetology rather than preparing them for college. Lingering memories of those days are fresh on the minds of the many Latino and African-American state leaders who are uneasy with current legislative efforts to loosen Texas' high school graduation standards so that students can pursue more career training."

"It's tempting to conclude that the advantages of wealth and income have simply intensified, so the odds are increasingly stacked against poorer students. No doubt that's true to some extent, but Bailey and Dynarski show that most of the change has been driven by trends among female students."

"The liberal critics of affirmative action believe that many of these approaches would be better than the current one. Racial discrimination obviously continues to exist. But the disadvantages of class, by most measures, are larger today."

"Lawmakers rejected a bill designed to close the educational achievement gap for at-risk students through an expansion of high-quality public preschool."

"Federal funding to help educate Missouri's low-income and special education students is expected to take a big hit during the next school year."