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"The authors found that many of the top low-income students don't know about the amount of financial aid available at the top colleges, and wind up going to community colleges or four-year institutions closer to their homes. They frequently don't have role models who have attended elite colleges. They don't think they can hack the coursework or afford the ancillary expenses to attend such schools."

"This is why the best early childhood programs pay for themselves. They reduce welfare rolls and prison costs, and have been shown to cut the need for special education services nearly in half. So the real question here isn't whether to invest in preschool. It's what kind of preschool it is: Quality matters."

"Of course, Mr. Obama's initiative has come face to face with the reality of federal budget constraints, as the sequester - or across-the-board spending cuts - begins to take effect. Those cuts will stymie Obama's early childhood education agenda for the foreseeable future, but expanding preschool for low-income families is still an idea whose time has come. Based on what the White House has released so far and some judicious reading between the lines, there are several aspects of the president's preschool plan to applaud."

"Of all students in households with income below $50,000, only 45 percent of those who did not have their own savings account enrolled in college, but 65 percent of those with savings from $1 to $499 enrolled and 72 percent of those with savings of $500 or more enrolled. Variations of children's savings accounts -- some with matching amounts donated -- have cropped up around the country, through the influence of several organizations, including the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a Washington, D.C., organization aimed at alleviating poverty through economic opportunity and which worked with Propel in developing the proposal."

"Despite taxpayer "investment" of nearly $8 billion per year, Head Start consistently fails to reap a return for either taxpayers or participating children. In December 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that administers Head Start, released a scientifically rigorous evaluation of more than 5,000 children participating in the program. It found that Head Start had little to no impact on cognitive, social-emotional, health, or parenting practices of participants."

"Haslam has put together a plan, Senate Bill 196 that would offer vouchers to 5,000 students from low-income families who attend poorly performing schools. But some Senate Republicans have put together a proposal that would give vouchers to twice as many students from families that make nearly twice as much. A showdown on the matter could come as soon as Wednesday."

"The Working Connections program offers a way to make 3-to-23 education a reality while providing affordable care to low-income children so their parents can work or look for a job. It allows us to provide critical early-learning services and helps keep Washington citizens employed at the same time."

"Houston developer J. Steve Ford wants to build the Hills of Pflugerville on six acres in the Falcon Pointe subdivision, which is under construction. The 117-unit development would be available for people 55 years old or older who earn up to 60 percent of the area's median family income."

"No one denies that the governor's proposal is a bold move to provide California's lower-income children with a better chance for an education. But already some in the Legislature - particularly those in suburban districts - are crying foul. In the zero-sum game of education funding, where state resources are at a premium, the governor may have just unleashed a tidal wave of controversy about how much the state should help disadvantaged children."

"Children who enrolled in Head Start at 3 years of age improved more than children who started Head Start at age 4. More generally, studies show that children reared in poverty during their first 5 to 6 years have substantially poorer long-term educational, health and economic outcomes than children reared in poverty after 5 to 6 years of age. So the early years are very important."

"Through Providence Talks, researchers and policy makers are likely to learn much more about whether pulling this language lever can really help level the academic playing field. At the same time, however, by asking scores of regular parents to opt into massive, data-driven recording and analysis of all the language their children hear in their first few years, and then encouraging them to change the personal matter of how they talk to their kids as a result, they are launching a project of unprecedented scope and audacity."

"Chronic absenteeism - kids missing more than 10 percent of the school year, or about 18 days - is just as big a problem as mobility, according to reports from states or districts that track that data. In 2011-12, more than 2,300 K-3 students in Greater Cincinnati fell into that category, according to the fledgling Read On! Attendance Collaborative. The coalition of non-profit education and community groups is starting to track absenteeism for the first time."