Federal File

For the first time ever, thousands of low-income students are getting help paying for their Advanced Placement examinations this month through federal grants aimed at making the College Board's AP test fees more affordable. The testing fee is $45 for low-income students and $74 for others.

The $3 million in federal funding was divvied up among 32 states to cover the cost of 67,000 tests.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said he sponsored the AP-test funding provision in an appropriations bill last year as a way to help increase the rate of AP test-taking in New Mexico. (Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison,...