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"Smaller districts are in great need of more state aid. As predicted, the state law that caps the annual increase in property taxes at 2 percent or the inflation rate, unless 60 percent of the voters agree to more, has hit hardest on some of the poorest school districts. The current formula for allotting school aid is skewed to help districts of politically powerful legislators; it should be changed to spread more money to impoverished areas."

"Unless Congress acts, the interest rate on new federally subsidized Stafford student loans taken out after June 30 will revert to 6.8 percent - the same rate charged on unsubsidized Stafford loans - from 3.4 percent. The discounted rate for subsidized loans, which go to lower-income families, was supposed to expire in June 2012. But lawmakers put on their can-kicking boots and postponed it for one year."

"In a potential replay of last year's stand-off, more than 7 million college students could again be threatened with a doubling of the interest rate on their school loans July 1 if Congress fails to act. Heading off the increase was one focus of a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing this week, with the panel's top Republican saying lawmakers should move to strengthen the federal student loan program more generally."

"Superintendents and treasurers from low-income, rural school districts across the state gathered at the Statehouse yesterday to push for significant changes to a funding formula they say punishes their students."

"Studies have suggested that early childhood education benefits society, because children who are enrolled grow up to be more productive adults, more likely to hold a job and less likely to receive public benefits. Early education for low-income children is estimated to generate $4 to $11 in benefits for every dollar spent on the program, according to a 2011 cost-benefit analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health."

"As Oregon lawmakers consider more changes in a 50-year-old program that pays property taxes for low-income seniors and people with disabilities, they heard good news from two reports. According to the Oregon Department of Revenue, the program is back in balance after getting down to zero about two years ago."

"If children are prepared at home and in the community they are more likely to arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed. But if children are exposed to poverty and neglect they are more likely to remain behind their peers, and their chances are greater of having difficulty as they become adults who want to participate in the workforce, he said."

"Nearly four out of five Latino students were enrolled in predominantly minority schools in 2010, according to the Civil Rights Project, based at the University of California at Los Angeles. About 7 percent of those students went to intensely segregated minority schools' - ones where less than 10 percent of students were white and a large majority of students lived in poverty."

"But although the program is thriving, it could be hurt by federal budget cuts. Earlier this month, Congress failed to avoid across-the-board reductions, known as the sequester cuts, and programs such as Good Beginnings are nervously awaiting the trickle-down effects."

"Colleges often make themselves appear less expensive - and more attractive to cash-poor families - through promotional materials and financial aid letters that hide the true costs. Last month the federal government unveiled an online college scorecard that can help families cut through some of the confusion."

"The widening gap in life expectancy between these two adjacent Florida counties reflects perhaps the starkest outcome of the nation's growing economic inequality: Even as the nation's life expectancy has marched steadily upward, reaching 78.5 years in 2009, a growing body of research shows that those gains are going mostly to those at the upper end of the income ladder."

"Suburban districts for years have been screaming for more flexibility from state mandates. Urban districts have sought recognition for the fact that they educate more needy students. Brown's new formula for funding schools should satisfy both."