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"Obama wants to guarantee preschool at age 4 for all children from poor and working-class backgrounds. He also wants to support local initiatives to provide education for middle-class children of the same age, as well as for infants and toddlers from low-income families. Administration officials said the proposals were based on extensive economic research showing the importance of early childhood education and a growing recognition that the United States is falling behind in providing an adequate education for its youngest citizens."

"For families at or below 200 percent of poverty, the White House is proposing a cost-sharing program between the federal government and all 50 states. Proponents believe that provision, and the proposal as a whole, will level the playing field for low-income students."

"Alabama is one of only five states whose preschool program received top marks based on an assessment of its quality standards by the National Institute for Early Education Research, but only 6 percent of 4-year-olds there are enrolled in a state-financed preschool. To receive state money in Alabama, a preschool must employ teachers with bachelor's degrees in early childhood education or child development, keep class sizes under 20 children, and follow a state-approved curriculum. The Obama administration is proposing similar standards for its federal matching program."

"More precisely, 22 percent of adult Americans are functionally innumerate' a word that sums up the inability to do math problems like the word illiterate' describes lack of reading and writing skills. These millions of innumerate people don't have the basic math skills for most modern jobs, including the low-level jobs open to people without college degrees."

"That pre-kindergarten education is the gateway to a better life for poor, working-class children is highlighted in a chart that was used to highlight the importance of a college degree. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual income for people 25 and older with a college degree or higher is $60,004. Those without a high school diploma make considerably less, $23,532 annually."

"According to the report, Some of the most significant achievements have involved expanding access to early childhood education, health-care coverage and affordable child care.' Other gains the report touts include substantially improving the child welfare system, establishing and strengthening the state earned income tax credit for low-income working families and adopting social and emotional learning standards for Illinois public schools."

"But, starting a few decades ago, we learned that preschool intervention programs could help. The efforts were small and expensive, but early childhood programs like the Perry and Abecedarian projects made big differences in kids' lives. The success of these programs set off a lot of rhapsodic writing, including by me, about the importance of early childhood education. If government could step in and provide quality preschool, then we could reduce poverty and increase social mobility."

"Oklahoma's 1998 law gave more funding to schools that enrolled 4-year-olds and allowed school districts to collaborate with federally-funded Head Start programs, churches and other outside organizations to share resources. The law also created stringent standards for the classroom: All pre-K teachers had to have a college degree and a certificate in early-childhood education, and they were paid the same wage as K-12 teachers. The student-teacher ratio had to be at least 10-1, and class sizes were limited to 20."

"Even after recent significant increases, the maximum Pell Grant today covers the smallest share of the cost of attending a public college since the program started 40 years ago, advocates say. As a result, the gap in college enrollment and graduation rates between children from high- and low-income families has widened over the past 30 years. To help reduce the gap, many Ohio schools have added new grants and scholarships and increased the amount of their awards."

"In just a handful of words in his State of the Union address, President Obama renewed a proposal to lower the amount that the federal government pays for drugs taken by low-income seniors -- a measure that supporters say would save the government more than $150 billion over the next decade. But it faces formidable opposition from Republicans, some Democrats and the powerful pharmaceutical industry, making passage unlikely. In essence, the plan would require drug companies to provide Medicare with discounts like those they now give to Medicaid."

"President Obama will visit a Head Start program near Atlanta on Thursday to formally unveil his proposal for expanding early childhood education, which includes home-visiting programs that offer parenting skills and support to new mothers and fathers, more quality child care for infants and toddlers, and a push to offer preschool to all 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families."

"Obama proposes expanding federal support for preschool to all 4-year-olds from moderate- and low-income families. The idea is supported by considerable research showing quality early learning boosts graduation rates. Putting students on the right academic track early saves school districts about $3,700 per child over the K-12 years in money not spent on remediation and other interventions."