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"A University of North Carolina Board of Governors panel has recommended the elimination of three university centers, including UNC-Chapel Hill's Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, whose director has been an outspoken critic of the Republican political leadership."

"There is strong evidence that poverty is the major problem in American education: When researchers control for poverty, our performance on international tests is at the top of the world. Poverty means poor diet, inadequate healthcare and lack of access to books."

"Poverty is among the biggest challenges faced by children in Indiana, according to the results of an annual Indiana Youth Institute summary. Although the economy is rebounding from the recession, the 2015 Kids Count Data Book finds 22 percent of children in the state are living in poverty."

"'One of the main conclusions is that there are great inequalities of peoples' chances of getting or entering post-secondary (education), where they will go and whether they will get a bachelor's degree depending upon their family's income situation.'"

"One in five kids relied on food stamps last year, yet nearly half of low-income children didn't sit down to the most important meal of the day, according to a recent report released by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). The organization determined the figures by comparing the number of kids who partook in the free lunch program to those who took advantage of the gratis breakfast option, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture."

"The 2015 Legislature has the opportunity to make more progress for preschoolers based on the general and often bipartisan support for some of the ideas that have already been introduced. One of those proposals, which calls for state-funded, school-based programs for all 4-year-olds, should be modified. Rather than approving a universal program, lawmakers should fund expansion of the current scholarship program targeted to lower-income students."

"CAP's brief outlines how, as a result of the cap on taxable earnings$118,500 for 2015Social Security's funding is tied directly to the full wages that low- and middle-income workers earnbut not to the full wages that higher-earning workers receive. The brief finds that in 2013, the top 1 percent of earners took home nearly the same share of the nation's total wage income as the entire bottom half of workers. As a result, income has shifted away from workers whose full earnings are subject to payroll taxes and toward high-income workers whose additional dollars are exempt."

"But it's time to move beyond this familiar back and forth and entertain a grand compromise in which the federal school-funding policy allows for portability of money only if doing so will reduce what research suggests is one of the biggest impediments to equal educational opportunity: deep levels of economic segregation in American schools. A policy change that takes this reality into consideration could have a significant positive impact on the lives of millions of children."

"Hundreds of low-income Iowans will get an unpleasant surprise when they apply for rent reimbursement from the state this year. The Iowa Department of Revenue is reducing 2014 reimbursements to 429 low-income seniors and disabled residents by an average $89 after discovering the agency accidentally overpaid them last year."

"The Houston Independent School District has received an $8.5 million grant to help more low-income students graduate from college, Superintendent Terry Grier announced Wednesday. The funds from Houston Endowment Inc. will enable the district to hire more college counselors and special advisers, rapidly expanding the small but popular program that largely targets students who will be the first in their families to pursue higher education."

"On the funding side, [The Rural Renewable Energy Alliance] RREAL got a grant from the McKnight Foundation in December to help jumpstart the project's creation. The model makes sense [] not only because it increases the amount of clean energy used in Minnesota, but because it's beneficial to low-income families in multiple ways."