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"While universities prefer race-based programs that assemble generally well-off students of all colors, the end of such programs will likely usher in a more aggressive set of policies that will, at long last, address America's growing economic divide."

"Despite the clear benefits of increasing the state's higher education attainment rate, the two major pathways for adult education in California the K-12 school districts and the California community colleges do not have a strategy to increase the rates of the adult enrollment and completion of some higher education."

"Three of the schools are getting a new principal, while two will keep their current leaders. Teachers are reapplying for their jobs, and at least one school already is advertising teaching positions for the coming year. The goal is to improve student performance by changing the school's culture. At high-poverty schools, where students sometimes are years behind their peers academically, the turnaround is an uphill slog."

"McDaniel showed up on a New America best' list, with 28 percent of its full-time students qualified for Pell Grants (that is, low-income) and their families paying an average net price of $9,778 per year. Tuition and room and board at McDaniel for the 2010-2011 academic year, the one examined in the report, was $40,340. McDaniel has been working at this earnestly since 2006. It reports minority enrollment more than doubling from 12 percent in 2007 to 29 percent in 2012 and nearly 40 percent of freshmen this year were first-generation collegians."

"Many of Florida's 24,580 teaching assistants do the work for hourly pay that's low enough to qualify them and a dependent for food stamps. In Lake County, beginning assistants are paid an average of $12,571, according to a state survey last year -- an amount so low that a single person with a child would be below the federal poverty line."

"In March, a grand survey of thousands of teenagers found that most low-income, high-achieving students don't even bother to apply to top colleges and universities. The boys and girls in the study came from families making less than $41,000 a year, had A-minus or above grade averages through high school and scored in the top 10 percent on college entrance exams."

"Having teachers who understand what it is like to live in poverty is really helpful when you've got a bunch of kids living in intense poverty,' he said. We want staff who can identify with our kids, staff our kids can identity with.'"

"While the expansion is welcome, the phase-in period is too long. Thousands of 4-year-olds in poverty will miss out on the benefits of early training. Advocates note that this training exposes 4-year-olds living in poverty to language and motor skills they are not likely to learn in their own homes. Without that training, they start out behind their peers in kindergarten, and catching up can be difficult."

"A study released this week says colleges' pricing and aid policies are endangering the advancement of low-income and working-class students into the middle class. And once again, Pennsylvania public campuses found themselves on the high side of prices."

"Here in Massachusetts, Endicott College's Keys to Degrees program which has an 80 percent employment rate among graduates and has spawned almost a dozen similar programs at colleges around the nation holds real promise to help mothers and their children achieve their dreams together. It's the right thing and the smart thing to do."

"Why don't poor kids apply to top schools? The study and the documentary suggest several reasons: The students aren't urged to do so by their families or their college counselors. They are unlikely to know graduates of such schools, even among the staffs at their high schools. The colleges aren't actively or effectively recruiting these kids who fly under the radar."

"Although 4-year-old kindergarten is not appropriate for every child, it can be extremely beneficial to low-income children who often live in difficult circumstances. Poverty creates multiple obstacles to children's school readiness. Parents in low-income homes may not be as invested in a child's success; often low-income children are brought up in single-parent homes and in many scenarios the one parent is working a full-time job that keeps him or her away from their child for significant parts of every day."