New Bill Targets College Access, Academic Success in Low-Income Areas: Education leaders in the U.S. Senate want to promote college success in low-income communities through a new “cradle-to-career” educational support program in the nation’s highest poverty neighborhoods.Proposed by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate’s education committee, and five other Democrats, the Promise Neighborhoods Act would create a new national initiative based on a model developed by the Harlem Children’s Zone to serve at-risk students in New York City.
That program, which began on one city block, has spread to cover more than 10,000 Harlem children. Integrated within the Children’s Zone are early childhood education programs, charter schools and support to prepare children for college.
