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"In just a handful of words in his State of the Union address, President Obama renewed a proposal to lower the amount that the federal government pays for drugs taken by low-income seniors -- a measure that supporters say would save the government more than $150 billion over the next decade. But it faces formidable opposition from Republicans, some Democrats and the powerful pharmaceutical industry, making passage unlikely. In essence, the plan would require drug companies to provide Medicare with discounts like those they now give to Medicaid."

"President Obama will visit a Head Start program near Atlanta on Thursday to formally unveil his proposal for expanding early childhood education, which includes home-visiting programs that offer parenting skills and support to new mothers and fathers, more quality child care for infants and toddlers, and a push to offer preschool to all 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families."

"Obama proposes expanding federal support for preschool to all 4-year-olds from moderate- and low-income families. The idea is supported by considerable research showing quality early learning boosts graduation rates. Putting students on the right academic track early saves school districts about $3,700 per child over the K-12 years in money not spent on remediation and other interventions."

"While supporters herald the plan as a way to help level the playing field for children who do not have the advantages of daily bedtime stories, music lessons and counting games at home, critics argue that providing universal preschool could result in federal money being squandered on ineffective programs."

"Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who delivered the Republican response to the State of the Union, announced Wednesday morning that he has introduced federal legislation that would give tax credits to help prepare our children for the jobs of tomorrow.' The bill, titled the Educational Opportunities Act, would, among other things, amend the federal tax code to allow taxpayers to receive credits of up to $4,500 to cover tuition and other education-related expenses for children attending nonpublic schools. The Rubio measure, his first during the new congressional session, represents a new frontier in federal school reform and is geared specifically toward low-income families."

"And President Obama is trying, against great odds, to do something for 4-year-olds. People, think about this for a minute. We have no bigger crisis as a nation than the class barrier. We're near the bottom of the industrialized world when it comes to upward mobility. A child born to poor parents has a pathetic chance of growing up to be anything but poor. This isn't the way things were supposed to be in the United States. But here we are."

"Most other academic studies have also found early educational intervention fade out' and that these programs rarely achieve what they promise. Russ Whitehurst of the Brookings Institution wrote Wednesday that the available studies supporting universal pre-K were thin empirical gruel.' Researchers at the Heritage Foundation and the conservative sociologist Charles Murray have come to similar conclusions. This is about as close to an intellectual policy consensus as Washington gets."

"President Obama's call for universal preschool in his State of the Union address underlines a national shift in thinking about early childhood education, driven by advances in neuroscience and a growing urgency about the need to close the achievement gap between poor and privileged children. A small but increasing number of states have invested tax dollars in preschool during the past decade, and millions of parents are walking their 3- and 4-year-old children into classrooms instead of keeping them at home or with a babysitter."

"The donation will be seed money for expanding a two-year-old food pantry program now in six Multnomah County low-income schools. The donation, and a challenge for other businesses to join the campaign, could grow the program to 24 more school-based food pantries in counties served by the Oregon Food Bank."

"Georgia's pre-kindergarten program will get a turn in the national spotlight this week when President Barack Obama uses Decatur as a backdrop to promote an education initiative to give low-income preschoolers an earlier start on their schooling."

"Wichita and several other major Kansas school districts fought a proposal Tuesday that would take poverty measures out of the school finance formula, focusing instead on test scores. Under Senate Bill 103, districts would no longer be able to count students beyond third grade as at risk' just because they qualify for free and reduced lunch."

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