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"Children who live in poverty come to school at a disadvantage, arriving at their classrooms with far more intensive needs than their middle-class and affluent counterparts. Poor children also lag their peers, on average, on almost every measure of academic achievement. But in 23 states, state and local governments are together spending less per pupil in the poorest school districts than they are in the most affluent school districts, according to federal data from fiscal year 2012, the most recent figures available."

"Almost 80 percent of high school graduates go to college nowadays. Almost half of them, mostly low-income students, start at a community college. And 80 percent of those say they hope to get a four-year bachelor's degree. But in the end, less than a third of community college graduates transfer to a four-year college, and still fewer of them only about 15 percent succeed in getting that undergraduate degree."

"New research illustrates the graduation advantage of attending a four-year university over a community college, particularly for low-income students.The working paper, 'College Access, Initial College Choice, and Degree Completion' by Joshua Goodman, an assistant professor at Harvard University, and Michael Hurwitiz and Jonathan Smith, both of the College Board, recently was posted on the National Bureau of Economic Research website."

"Like their peers across the country, Virginia public institutions have responded to state funding reductions in recent years by raising tuition. A new analysis released Wednesday shows, in stark detail, how those increased costs to students are impairing the success of students in the state, particularly low-income students."

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 25 percent of the energy used in schools is wasted. In a world of shrinking budgets and resources, energy-efficiency savings in utility costs could be used for desperately needed funding for additional teachers and school resources. Nowhere is this more important than in our nation's poorest school districts, where the concept of a green, healthy school is rarely a priority."

"Scholarships can be used at school-based programs. But scholarships also can be used at high-quality early-education programs operating out of centers, churches, nonprofit organizations and homes many of which are located in low-income areas. Scholarships are a both/and solution."

"In East New York, there is a children's marching band that has performed with celebrities such as Mariah Carey and The Sugar Hill Gang; they play at national competitions, the U.S. Open, and have traveled to Senegal, Gambia, and Panama. Yet, good grades are the sole criteria for joining."

"Republican governors like Michigan's Rick Snyder and presidential candidates like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush keep talking about the need to address poverty a welcomed pivot in a party whose policies tend to pretend poor people either don't matter or got that way on purpose and don't deserve help."

"The new study is based on an analysis of demographic changes in 66 cities between 1990 and 2012. It comes just months after a surge of headlines about suburban poverty following a Brookings Institution study that found that more Americans are now living in poverty in the suburbs than in rural or urban areas. News of this demographic shift comes as no surprise to suburban school superintendents and school boards. They know their student populations are shifting, and they are wrestling with how to adequately serve the rising number of poor children who come to class with far more needs than their more affluent peers."