Millions of children in America are denied the opportunity to receive a fair and high quality education. In March, the U.S. Department of Education released new information showing that children of color face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous course offerings, and are more often taught by lower paid and less experienced teachers.

Inequities in funding and educational resources place poor children in low-performing schools with inadequate facilities and often ineffective teachers. Practices such as tracking, grade retention, out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, and one-size-fits-all zero tolerance policies continue to contribute to the discouragement, disengagement, and eventual dropout of countless children in America to their detriment and to all of us who need a competitive future workforce.

Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D., announced today that the University has received a $150 million gift from Dr. James and Dr. Marilyn Simons, and from the Simons Foundation. It is the largest gift in the history of Stony Brook University or to any one of the 64 institutions in the SUNY system. Present for the historic announcement, in addition to the Simons, were New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, and a number of elected representatives.
Jim Simons is Board Chair of Renaissance Technologies LLC, Chair of the Simons Foundation, and former Chairman of Stony Brook’s Department of Mathematics. Marilyn Simons is an alumna of the University and President of the Simons Foundation. Dr. Stanley said that the University worked closely with them to establish three priorities for their investment: research excellence in the School of Medicine; faculty hires through new endowed professorships; and recruitment of top level graduate and undergraduate students.

NEW YORK – Officials announced 13 arrests Tuesday in an SAT scandal in which test-takers allegedly accepted money to impersonate other students, two months after prosecutors first charged a 19-year-old man with forging identities, even posing as a female student to take the exam for her at one point.

Thirteen former and current Long Island, N.Y. high schoolers turned themselves in on Tuesday, authorities said, bringing the total charged in the cheating ring to 20. Four of the new defendants are accused of taking payments of $500 to $3,600 to stand in for students on SAT or ACT exams. The Associated Press reported that nine others are accused of paying the alleged impostors to take the test for them, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.

Washington (CNN) — When Tip O’Neill retired in 1987, he was asked how the quality of people elected to Congress had changed in his 30-plus years of service. The former Speaker of the House answered: “The quality is clearly better, much better.” But, he added, “The results are definitely worse.”

He meant: as compared to the Congresses of the 1950s, the Congresses of the 1980s contained fewer drunks and fewer crooks. Members were better educated and harder working. Yet the Congresses of the 1950s managed to balance the budget, confirm presidential nominees in reasonable time and enact programs, like the one that created the interstate highway system. The Congresses of the 1980s could do none of those things.

In a controversial effort to curb teen vanity, a school in England prohibits makeup and removes mirrors from the girls’ bathrooms

Talk about plain dealing. The 14- to 16-year-old girls at Shelley College in West Yorkshire, England have been banned from wearing makeup, and are checked daily for offending eyeliner and rouge. (Teachers are reportedly armed with “makeup removal kits.”) Going even further, the school has removed the mirrors in the girls’ bathrooms to curb what’s perceived as an obsession with vanity. “There comes a point when you need to stop teachers spending half an hour in the day talking to girls about their makeup,” says head teacher John McNally. “It is more sensible to say it’s not allowed.” Is this a good way to help kids focus on learning over looks?

FRESNO, Calif. — Some people give back to their community. Then there’s Fresno County School Superintendent Larry Powell, who’s really giving back. As in $800,000 — what would have been his compensation for the next three years.

Until his term expires in 2015, Powell will run 325 schools and 35 school districts with 195,000 students, all for less than a starting California teacher earns.

“How much do we need to keep accumulating?” asks Powell, 63. “There’s no reason for me to keep stockpiling money.”

From how to score a cocktail to where to scatter grandma’s ashes, this is your ticket to the real Magic Kingdom.

1. There are dead bodies in the Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland is one of the scariest places in the park, but not for the reasons you’d expect. In his 1994 book “Mouse Tales,” former Disney employee David Koenig tells the story of a tourist group that requested a little extra time on the ride so they could hold a quick memorial for a 7-year-old boy.

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (CBS/AP) The purse a woman used to hit a gunman at a Florida Panhandle school board meeting was sold for charity on eBay for $13,100, according to a report.

PICTURES: Fla. School Board Shooting

The purse’s owner, board member Ginger Littleton, tried to use the purse to swat the gun from the hands of a 56-year-old Clay Duke, who took her and her fellow board members hostage at a Bay District School Board meeting in Panama City, Fla. on Dec. 14.

Littleton agreed to let NBC station WJHG auction off the purse on eBay with the proceeds going Mike Jones’ Salvage Santa

(CNN) — Restaurant chain KFC has launched a scholarship campaign that aims to keep it short and “tweet.”

The chain is running a scholarship contest using microblogging site Twitter to reach out to a younger generation. Applicants use 140 characters or less to explain why they deserve the $20,000 scholarship.

High school seniors have until November 26 to enter the contest, the chain said in a statement. The tweet should include the hashtag #KFCScholar.

It is not right to give something to some one that is not in this country legal. Let them go back and do it the right way. No one gives us a break.

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court weighed in Monday on the politically charged immigration fray when it ruled that illegal immigrants are entitled to the same tuition breaks offered to in-state high school students to attend public colleges and universities.

While the ruling applies only to California, the case was closely watched nationally because nine other states, including New York and Texas, have similar laws.

Republican congressmen Lamar S. Smith of Texas and Steve King of Iowa filed a so-called friends of the court brief urging that illegal immigrants be denied the reduced rate.

The lawsuit considered by the court was part of a broader legal assault led by immigration legal scholar Kris Kobach, who has filed numerous cases across the country seeking to restrict the rights of illegal immigrants.