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"Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, cited the data recently on '60 Minutes' to make the point that "educational differences" are a root cause of income inequality."

"Racial and ethnic disparities in student achievement remain stubbornly wide, despite a decade of efforts to close them, but a new report has found that Latino students are narrowing the academic gaps notably in many schools."

"If states continue their current pace of progress in narrowing achievement gaps between students of different races, ethnic groups, and income levels, it could take decades for lagging student groups in some states to catch up to their better-performing peers, a study of more than 40 states has found."

"The test score analysis shows a "sobering" picture of the nation's improvement rate for some minorities and low-income students, said Jack Jennings, president and CEO of the Center of Education Policy."

"No education issue has received more attention in recent years but with less apparent progress than the achievement gaps for minority and low-income students. The Center on Education Policy released a study Tuesday that looks at trends in all 50 states. Despite a few bright spots, the picture is bleak."

"We must also address poverty. In far too many cases, today's pregnant and parenting teens were themselves children of poor teen parents, creating an intergenerational transfer of poverty."

Center on Education Policy's New Finding

"Of those 15 years and older who worked full time and year-round, the second generation had higher median earnings ($42,297) in 2008 than the foreign-born population ($32,631). The second generation was slightly less likely to be in poverty (16 percent) than the first generation..."

"With little discretionary income, many women can't afford additional education that might accelerate their careers, said Rosanna Marquez, president of the Eleanor Foundation, which supports educational initiatives that help lower-income working women."

"New Hampshire wants its youth to graduate from high school whether they are in school, in jail or homeless."

"In northwest Alaska, even public assistance payments to low-income families are at stake if their children don't return to school."

" However, low-wage workers live on average two years less than affluent workers. These differences in life expectancy neutralize the higher ratio of benefits to contributions enjoyed by low-wage workers as compared to affluent workers."