Ensuring All Students Have the Education Opportunities Needed to Succeed

America’s schools play an important role in meeting the educational needs of an increasingly diverse 

student population and ensuring that all students get a fair shot at the American dream. A child’s zip 

code should never determine their destiny, but today, the neighborhoods children grow up in impact 

their odds of graduating high school and lifetime economic opportunities. As a country, we cannot 

let the potential of these students go to waste. Our future economic prosperity is tied to the success 

of all students. 

President Obama has laid out ambitious new plans to ensure that there are ladders of opportunity 

that will give millions of hard working Americans in high-poverty communities a leg up into the 

middle class. Education plays an important role in those plans. The President’s budget includes the 

following education investments that support the ladders of opportunity agenda:

• Preschool for All ($75 billion). This investment would support grants to States for the 

implementation of high-quality preschool programs that are aligned with elementary and 

secondary education systems. The Department would partner with States to provide 

universal access to high-quality preschool for children from low- and moderate-income 

families.

• Promise Neighborhoods ($300 million). This request would greatly expand the program 

and increase the number of projects that significantly improve the educational and 

developmental outcomes of children and youth by providing a birth-to-career continuum of 

rigorous and comprehensive education reforms, effective community services, and strong 

systems of family and community support – with high quality schools at the center. 

• High School Redesign ($300 million). This new high school competition would fund 

district partnerships with (i) postsecondary institutions and (ii) business, industry, non-profits 

or community-based organizations to redesign high schools. Redesigned high schools would

ensure that students graduate from high school with college credit and career-related 

experience, putting them on a path to career and college success. Special consideration 

would be given to partnerships that focus on areas with limited access to quality career and 

college opportunities, such as high poverty and rural districts, as well as to partnerships with 

employers that can provide students with career-related experience or career-related 

credentials.

• The Creation of Promise Zones. The Department of Education, the Department of 

Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Commerce, the Department of 

Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Agriculture 

are working together to ensure that federal programs and resources are focused intensely on 

communities with high concentrations of poverty. Targeted investments in areas designated 
as “Promise Zones” would transform high-poverty communities into places of opportunity 

that can attract private investment, improve education, and create jobs. Tax incentives would

be used to help stimulate growth and investments in Promise Zones, and technical assistance 

to local leaders would help them navigate federal programs, cut red tape, and use federal 

resources more effectively.

The Department’s FY 2014 budget request provides additional investments that align and support 

the President’s ladders of opportunity plan and ensure that all students have the opportunity to 

succeed in college and careers. Key investments include:

• College- and Career-Ready Students program ($14.5 billion). The request would 

continue the Administration’s significant support for schools with high percentages of lowincome students through the College- and Career-Ready Students program (Title I Grants to 

Local Educational Agencies under current law). This program would strengthen school, 

district, and State accountability by continuing to require disaggregated reporting of 

achievement data for all subgroups of students, asking States to implement meaningful 

interventions in schools with the largest achievement gaps, and measuring student growth as 

well as achievement.

• IDEA Part B Grants to States ($11.6 billion). These formula grants support States and 

districts in providing special education and related services to students with disabilities. The 

grants are critical to the efforts of states and districts to provide the more than 6.5 million 

students with disabilities ages 3 through 21 served by Part B a free appropriate public 

education (FAPE) that meets their unique needs. By maintaining significant support for Part 

B, the Administration is helping to ensure that students with disabilities can participate in the 

general education curriculum to the maximum extent possible and are prepared for college 

and careers.

• Migrant Education State Grants ($393 million). This program would continue to help 

address the educational needs of approximately 223,000 children of migrant agricultural 

workers during the regular school year and summer session, allowing them to complete high 

school or a GED program and obtain employment. The Department also uses a portion of 

the funding to improve inter- and intra-State coordination of migrant education activities, 

including State exchange of migrant student data records through the Migrant Student 

Record Exchange System. 

• Helping Migrant Students Complete High School and College ($36 million). This 

request would support approximately 45 High School Equivalency Program (HEP) projects 

and 40 College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) projects, as well as outreach, technical 

assistance and professional development activities. HEP projects help low-income migrant 

and seasonal farm workers gain high school diplomas or equivalency certificates, and CAMP 
makes grants to provide stipends and special services, such as tutoring and counseling, to 

migrant students who are in their first year of college. 

• Neglected and Delinquent State Grants ($50 million). This program would continue to 

support education services for neglected and delinquent children and youth in local and 

State-run institutions, community day programs, and correctional facilities. These services 

would help an estimated 107,000 neglected and delinquent students return to and complete 

high school or a GED program and obtain employment.

• Homeless Children and Youth Education ($65 million). This program provides 

formula grants to States, which subgrant most funds to local educational agencies for 

services that help homeless children enroll in, attend, and succeed in school. In addition to 

ensuring homeless children and youth have access to academic instruction, the program 

increases access for these children to preschool programs, special education, and gifted and 

talented programs. The Administration’s reauthorization proposal would improve the 

funding formula to better reflect shifts in State counts of homeless students and target funds 

to where they are needed most. 

• Disconnected Youth ($10 million). This program would support youth who are neither 

employed nor enrolled in an educational institution or who are at high-risk of dropping out 

of high school. In implementing the program, the Department would work closely with the 

Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor to increase 

awareness and coordination at the state, local and federal levels. A portion of these funds 

would be used to invest in innovative re-engagement strategies and comprehensive 

approaches to prepare this population for college and career success. The budget request 

also includes $5 million for a new youth data pilot that would enhance communities’ tracking 

of and performance on multiple outcomes for at-risk youth using existing data sets. 

• College Pathways and Accelerated Learning for low-income students ($102 million).

This new program would provide grants to school districts and other entities to provide 

college-level and other accelerated courses and instruction in middle and high schools with 

high concentrations of students from low-income families. Although students who drop out, 

or are at risk of doing so, are often thought of as low achievers who need a watered-down 

curriculum, educators find that often the opposite is the case. This program would improve 

the education of students who might otherwise drop out because they are bored with and 

not challenged by the standard curriculum. 

• School Turnaround Grants ($659 million). Funds will continue to support subgrants from 

States to districts to help low-performing schools implement rigorous interventions that 

bring about dramatic improvements in student achievement and school performance. The 

President’s 2014 budget request increases funding for the program by $125 million. These 
additional funds would be used to strengthen the capacity of school districts to reform lowperforming schools. Part of these funds could also be used to expand the School 

Turnaround AmeriCorps Program, which places AmeriCorps members in low-performing 

schools to support their school turnaround efforts. Over 92% of the more than 1,200 

subgrants awarded by States in fiscal year 2009 were provided to medium to high poverty 

schools. In fiscal year 2010, medium to high poverty schools received more than 85% of the 

grants. 

• GEAR UP and TRIO ($1.1 billion). GEAR UP and TRIO provide intensive services to 

students in middle school through college. GEAR UP, which serves students beginning in 

the middle grades, provides early college preparation and awareness activities to entire 

cohorts of students at individual schools that help them set on a path to higher education. 

The TRIO programs, which include Upward Bound and Talent Search, provide intensive 

support, including summer learning opportunities, for students in high school to help more 

low-income, first generation college students access and succeed in higher education.