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"President Obama will propose a 10-year budget on Monday that stabilizes the federal deficit but does not seek balance, instead focusing on policies to address income inequality as he adds nearly $6 trillion to the debt. The budget - $4 trillion for the 2016 fiscal year - would hit corporations that park profits overseas, raise taxes on the richest of the rich and increase the incomes of the middle class through new spending and tax credits. Mr. Obama will challenge the newly elected Republican Congress to answer his emphasis on wage stagnation, according to congressional aides briefed on the details." This article focuses on how President Obama is constructing a 10-year budget which will increase taxes on the richest, while increasing the income of the middle class through various methods. Although this budget has lots of support, it has sparked debate on whether it might widen the gap between the rich and everyone else.

In America today, an academic achievement gap separates kids growing up in poverty from their peers in higher-income communities. Only 8% of students growing up in poverty graduate from college by age 24, compared with 80% of students in more affluent areas. This website gives lots of detail about the problems with educational opportunity gaps in America. It also has many videos going along with the articles.

Many low income people struggle with managing their money. This articles talks about how a licensed financial coach in Houston named Danita Wadley help with people's finance issues. In this particular article Wadley is helping a recovering drug addict,  McMurtry, get back on her feet. It also discusses how millions of families face a financial insecurity due to many factors, but with a financial coaching many people can get  back on track which is important to building a better economy.

"Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin has buzz. He has impressed conservative activists in Des Moines and is the front-runner for likely Republican Iowa caucus-goers, according to a Bloomberg Politics-Des Moines Register poll published over the weekend. Supporters say Mr. Walker, who is 47, has more diverse qualifications than the other Republicans: a non-Washington Republican who has won tough contests in a blue state, has taken on labor unions, and appeals to Christian conservatives and the business constituency. There is one credential that he doesn't have: a post-high school education. America hasn't elected a president without a college degree since Harry S. Truman." This article focuses on how the governor of Wisconsin might try to run for president without having a college education. According to the article, more than 40% of voters and all members of the Senate have higher education. Many strategists in both parties believe that Scott Walker's lack of college education could be troublesome if he chooses to run for president.

"Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin has buzz. He has impressed conservative activists in Des Moines and is the front-runner for likely Republican Iowa caucus-goers, according to a Bloomberg Politics-Des Moines Register poll published over the weekend. Supporters say Mr. Walker, who is 47, has more diverse qualifications than the other Republicans: a non-Washington Republican who has won tough contests in a blue state, has taken on labor unions, and appeals to Christian conservatives and the business constituency. There is one credential that he doesn't have: a post-high school education. America hasn't elected a president without a college degree since Harry S. Truman."

"The opportunity to learn-the necessary resources, the curriculum opportunities, the quality teachers-that affluent students have, is what determines what people can do in life." Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor of Education at Stanford University This includes information such as the different percentages of experienced teachers in different counties, states, cities, and districts. It mentions data about the education gap between different races in the US. It also gives information on how the access to high-level courses varies by state, and reasons and ways to close the opportunity gap.

In this article, they talk about opportunity gaps in America. They also talk about racial discrimination when it comes to getting a good education.

"AS the Yonkers public schools emerge from years of financial shortfalls and acrimony over desegregation and cutbacks, the school district, the state's fourth largest, is now looking to the private sector to assist its campaign to improve student achievement." This article is about helping the public schools in terms of funds and finding ways to achieve better learning environments for the students.

"The Pew report shows that all income groups lost wealth from 2007 to 2010, but that the recovery has disproportionally benefitted the richest among us. Their median wealth increased to $639,400 in 2013, from $595,300 in 2010. By contrast, the wealth of middle-income households was stagnant at $96,500. (These numbers have been adjusted for inflation.)" This article is about how over the past couple years, the average wealth for the upper class has increased, but the average wealth for the middle class has stayed the same.

According to the publication, global household wealth was $222.7 trillion in mid-2012, equal to $48,500 for each of the 4.6 billion adults in the world. Wealth is defined as "the marketable value of financial assets plus non-financial assets (principally housing and land) less debts."

This article talks about the responsibility the super rich have for the community.

"Thirty-four of the properties are in southeast Queens - an area still struggling to recover from the recent foreclosure crisis." "This is a hand up, not a hand out," said the group's CEO Neil Hetherington. "[The families] have gone from a situation of despair to one of hope." This article provides an example of how the haves can help the have nots, while the have nots take on responsibility. The Habitat for Humanity organization says they are a "hand up, not a hand out," as they require the low income families who are going to receive a house to work along side the volunteers for a certain amount of time.

"The following table presents unedited data (including corrections, if any) on disabled worker beneficiaries paid from Social Security's Disability Insurance Trust Fund. In particular, unedited award data may contain duplicate cases." This website has a graph which shows the number of people on the disability program.

"Independent experts see substantial evidence that disability insurance increasingly serves as a safety net for people who cannot find jobs - people, that is, who might still have the ability to perform at least some kinds of work." Some families depend on their disability checks to survive. This means that not only do the vast majority of people in the disability program not return to work, but this also results in more stress on taxes so the government can provide these people that are in the disability program with their monthly checks.

This article analyzes alternate reasons to why there is a rise in disability - not just that people are pretending. However, the article states that the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco says that it is "easier to qualify, as claims increasingly are judges on subjective criteria."

"The difference also is important because the disability program is running out of money. The government projects that the disability fund will not be able to meet all claims in full by 2016. Those financial problems are relatively easy to fix if the growth of disability is being driven by demographics, because those trends are leveling off. But if the program is attracting a broader constituency, then demand for benefits could grow more rapidly, requiring larger changes."   I think that the lines between welfare and disability insurance are blurred. People that can't get jobs due to their medical problems, turn to disability programs so they can classify themselves as having so. Sometimes, this has to do with education and that it's hard to find jobs that aren't physical with lower education, and it's easier to qualify for disability insurance because there are no set qualifications. I think that people turn to it when they can't work their jobs they have anymore, can't qualify for other ones, and are in pain so they just classify themselves as disabled. 

"Education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults. But a body of recently published scholarship suggests that the achievement gap between rich and poor children is widening, a development that threatens to dilute education's leveling effects." In this article, there was a discussion about how an education gap between different income families has been increasing over the years in America through several statistics. A major reason for this is because many low-income families have a set-back in their education since high-income families spend more money and time on their children's academic futures. Also, a study mentioned in this article explains how many low-income families face hardships with their students completing college due to troubles financially with the tuition.

"The growing gap between the better educated and the less educated, he argued, has formed a kind of cultural divide that has its roots in natural social forces, like the tendency of educated people to marry other educated people, as well as in the social policies of the 1960s, like welfare and other government programs, which he contended provided incentives for staying single." Overall, this article discusses the possible reasons and explanations for why the education gap has been increasing between different families and children in America. One of the major reasons this gap has become so prominent is because successful people tend to only associate with other successful people. And their children will end up continuing the trend because they too have received a higher education, and want to remain wealthy. The down side to this theory that many researchers have found is that the poorer families have a similar history. So, even if the children grow up in the same area, one is still going to receive a better education than the other depending on wealth. In addition, the article also explained how many of the problems could be resolved as income increases allowing for lower income families to receive the rightful education. Recommended:educationachievement gapsmithson5snow2 Group dictionary:incomeeducationsnow1snow7Smithson7lowder1responsibilitysmithson5snow2snow3 Share my existing annotations Savecancel "