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"The Off-to-College Campaign for homeless students begun in Tacoma last year is expanding this year to include students in four other Pierce County school districts: Puyallup, Bethel, Clover Park and Franklin Pierce. The goal is to help equip 100 local homeless youth with items they'll need at college: laptops, software, flash drives, sticky notes, highlighter pens, toiletries and more."

"Two Democrats and two Republicans are sponsors of a measure filed Monday that would create opportunity scholarship grants' of up to $4,200 per year for students whose families earn of up to three times the federal poverty level. The bill sets aside $90 million over two years for the program."

"The future of Bright Futures isn't all that bright. Tough new standards will keep significantly more high school graduates from obtaining the state's merit-based scholarship. It's almost as if to save Bright Futures, state leaders are going out of their way to destroy it, especially for minority and low-income students."

"Exact figures won't be known until May, but projected 5 percent to 10 percent reductions to Title I funding for low-income students, special education, Head Start and other programs for the 2013-14 school year could threaten funding for nearly 300 teacher and staff positions and may require trimming programs, district officials said."

"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."