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ALBANY—More lower income families would be eligible for the Family Health Plus program by removing depreciation of business assets from income eligibility calculations under legislation passed by the state Senate and sent to the Assembly.
“Programs like Family Health Plus and Child Health Plus have kept hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers healthy by making insurance [...]

Federal NDP leader Jack Layton wants to see the federal government get serious about monitoring fuel prices - and that means creation of a federal oversight agency.
Layton told The Intelligencer Friday he is particularly concerned about the rising cost of gasoline.
Along with a proposal he is pitching for creation of a federal fuel monitoring agency, [...]

Ridgewood is the sort of place that comes to mind when people talk about the American dream. Nestled in the woodlands of northern New Jersey, this quiet, verdant town of 25,000 souls breathes affluence and well-being. The locals work hard at high-powered jobs in Manhattan, but they enjoy the fruits of their labour. Large, handsome [...]

Playing four 15-minute sessions of board games such as snakes and ladders can improve a child’s mathematical abilities significantly, according to a study of four and five-year-olds. And the improvement in numerical tests is still measurable nine weeks later.The researchers who conducted the study said nursery classes should include numerical board games to familiarise children [...]

A new study published in the March/April 2008 issue of the journal Child Development finds that family wealth might partly explain differences in test scores in school-age children. The study, conducted by researchers at New York University, also found that family wealth is positively associated with parenting behavior, home environment, and children’s self-esteem.
Prior research has [...]

The soaring cost of tuition, books, accommodation and food has fired up the debate over how best to structure registered education savings plans, a popular way for families to set aside money so their kids can go to college or university.The future of RESPs has also become a political football in Ottawa as the Liberal [...]

Journalists unclear about a story often fall back on a stock introduction: “Confusion surrounds …” Yet that is a fair enough summary of the conclusions from a series of reports on university bursary schemes in England.The latest report, from the Sutton Trust last week, argued that fear of debt is deterring students from low-income families [...]

A campaign drawing in parents, businesses, teachers and pupils to help schools raise their game in use of technology has been launched by the educational technology agency, Becta. Next Generation Learning is the result of a Becta survey back in 2006 that found only 20% of schools were making best use of technology - even [...]

Covert selection by religious state schools has fuelled social segregation in education, some of the most respected academic authorities on schools admissions have told MPs. Class and ethnic divides between faith schools and other state schools have grown since 1990 and are worst in areas where faith schools apply “potentially selective” admissions criteria, research shows.The [...]

Church leaders today hit back at claims by MPs that faith schools “are adept” at keeping out children from low income families and those with special needs.At a meeting of the Commons children’s, schools and families committee, the Right Rev Patrick O’Donoghue, the Bishop of Lancaster, denied that Catholic schools excluded pupils from those backgrounds.He [...]