Students can match the performance of their foreign counterparts, but the American institutions do offer students from rich and poor families alike the chance to realize their full potential.
If we encourage our young people to believe in the future, and give them solid evidence for believing we'll find both crime and poverty shrinking to manageable proportions.
The gold standard study by Harvard and Columbia University scholars found that even in high-poverty schools, teachers consistently had a huge positive or negative impact.
Time and again one hears about his generous offerings when it comes to helping people who deserve help - be it the sick, the poor, the needy, the lonely or the deserted.
These might include threats to freeze EU funds for poorer regions and EU mega-projects, and even the suspension of a country's voting rights in EU ministerial councils.
His teenage grandchildren were deeply affected by the stories he Shared, of his own struggles with poverty and of the organizations that helped his family when they first arrived in the United States.
Mexico has historically had high drop-out rates as poor families pull kids out of school to help put food on the table, and children often sell candy and crafts in the streets or work in restaurants.