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"The income gap between New Jersey's wealthiest residents and all other groups has widened significantly since the turn of the century, and grew worse after the recent Great Recession lifted, according to a new report. Only the top 20 percent of households in the state has seen their average income increase since the recession ended in 2009, according to the study released today by Legal Services of New Jersey, an Edison-based organization that gives free legal help to low-income residents in civil cases."

"Juarez's experience is not unusual as more school districts and states expand access to early childhood education in an attempt to add learning time at a crucial point in children's development. Politicians and advocates alike have seized on research that says starting school young offers lasting dividends as well as on the political expediency of promising a benefit to every voter. As they have, the meaning of 'universal' preschool has become, well, not so universal."

" When computers on the University of Colorado campus become obsolete, that does not mean they are going to waste. Students are running a program called Computers to Youth to update these machines and give them to low income kids."

"The NCUA said its first round of grants for low-income credit unions will support their efforts to train staff and volunteers and to provide students with internship opportunities. The agency will provide at least $360,000 in funding during the first 2015 grant round. Credit unions may apply on the NCUA's website Feb. 2 through March 3. In addition, the NCUA said it may provide funds to more than 100 low-income credit unions."

"Community college students need better guidance and clearer pathways to a degree if significant numbers of low-income students are to graduate with a high-value credential, according to a report, released Thursday by Jobs for the Future (JFF), which, which works to improve college and career training for disadvantaged students. Despite many efforts and investment to boost college degree attainment, community colleges which educate about 44 percent of the nation's low-income students have yet to make a dent in national graduation rates."

"U.S. News has used exclusive data to analyze how successful colleges and universities have been at graduating their low-income students compared with their overall student bodies. This analysis measures the relative graduation rate performance of students who have received Pell Grants, which are federal financial aid awards for low-income families. The Pell Grant program most often serves undergraduates with family incomes of less than $20,000. Measuring the success of low-income college students is a key goal of a federal college rating plan originally outlined by President Barack Obama. However, it's unclear if the government's college ratings will be able to include that measurement, given the current inadequacies of the data collected by the U.S. Department of Education."

"The popular Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy will finally get to expand, after an initial denial and months of tweaked efforts to recruit more African-American and at-risk students. The Jefferson Parish School Board approved the move Wednesday. The charter school may enroll 90 more children for the 2015-16 academic year, adding seats in all grades except third, fourth and eighth. Starting in 2016-17, it may add high school grades."

"The poverty rate for school-age children increased during and after the Great Recession in nearly a third of counties, according to new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program. Poverty among children age 5 to 17 increased in 928 counties between 2007 and 2013, the research shows. It declined in 15 counties."

"According to new Census data out today, poverty rates for school-aged children in 2013 were still above their 2007 levels in nearly a third of all counties, many of them clustered around metro areas in California, Arizona, Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina."

"Reading Partners now operates in eight states, including California, where 9 out of every 10 fourth-graders from low-income families are reading below grade level. Unless something is done to help them step up to reading proficiency, they are four times less likely than proficient readers to graduate high school on time -- complicating their chances at going to college, and increasing the likelihood that they will have run-ins with the law, studies show."

"A developer of a $24 million assisted living complex for low-income seniors wants $1.4 million in tax breaks. The Plaza at Westchester is proposed for 75 Stratton St. South and it would consist of 158 units with living space for 200 residents."

"The American economy has stopped working the way it used to for millions of Americans. The path from poverty to the middle class has changed now, it runs through higher education. In 1965, a typical man whose education stopped after four years of high school earned a salary 15 percent higher than the median male worker. By 2012, a high-school-only grad was earning 20 percent less than the median. The swing has been even more dramatic for women who stopped their education after high school: They earned almost 40 percent more than the median female salary in 1965 and 24 percent less in 2012."