Latest Coverage

"But surely we can all agree that no child, once born, should suffer through poverty. Surely we can all agree that working to end child poverty or at least severely reduce it is a moral obligation of a civilized society. And yet, 14.7 million children in this country are poor, and 6.5 million of them are extremely poor (living below half the poverty line)."

"Swarthmore continues to its efforts to support low-income and other disadvantaged students this semester. Shortly before the semester began, the college published a list of administrators, professors, and staff who share experiences that may resonate with these students. The college has also created a summer bridge program for underrepresented students aiming to pursue a degree in STEM fields, and allowed students with extenuating circumstances to remain on campus over break."

"Vermont spent about 15 percent of its state budget on early childhood education in 2013. A little less than half of that expense supported K-3 education, and the rest targeted the needs of younger children. But many working families still cannot afford child care, according to a new report from an early childhood advocacy group. The update on state spending comes from Building Bright Futures, a non-profit that serves as Vermont's advisory council for early education."

"Those are just two examples of what school employees here and elsewhere feel they must do to support learning, because a growing share of their students come from low-income families. In fact, according to a new analysis of federal data, for the first time slightly more than half of all American public school kids are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches."

"Even as Ohio's private school vouchers remain dramatically underused, there appears to be no rush to re-examine their need. The state offers 60,000 EdChoice vouchers for children in struggling public schools, and fewer than one-third were used this school year, according to data released Friday by the Ohio Department of Education.

"In a sharp reversal from the recent past, the number of DPS students from higher-income families is growing faster than the number from lower-income families. The percentage of students from low-income families has been shrinking incrementally for three years now. And DPS and state officials are projecting that the new trend is here to stay for the foreseeable future."

"Kinney is one of the latest graduates of Year Up, a non-profit which helps prepare low-income young adults, ages 18-24, for corporate careers. The group provides a stipend during the one-year, intensive training program."

"U.S. student performance on international exams has fallen compared to other industrial nations in recent years, a fact policymakers and others often cite in arguing that U.S. public schools need rapid reform in order to maintain their global competitiveness.But now two organizations are out with a new study that challenges that narrative by comparing the United States to eight other nations on a raft of socioeconomic measures. The upshot of the report is that the single-minded focus on test scores has led policymakers to overlook other important trends that affect U.S. public education, including high levels of economic inequality and social stress. Schools can't be expected to solve these larger problems on their own, argue the study's authors, the Horace Mann League and the National Superintendents Roundtable."

"New Mexico continues to rank near the bottom in child poverty and the state has been slow to recover economically and stop the dwindling of resources, a new report said. The New Mexico Voices for Children on Tuesday released its annual New Mexico Kids Count report, which also faulted state lawmakers for not presenting any new anti-poverty initiatives to help one of the poorest states."

"The Washington Post and the New York Times picked up a Southern Education Foundation report about the increasing levels of low-income students in public schools. Here, I supplement that report with my own calculations from the American Community Survey. The 2000-2013 ACS data shows that the rise in poverty among K-12 students is a general economic phenomenon affecting private and public school students alike. In fact, the private school poverty rate rose faster over this period than the public school poverty rate."

"The percentage of low-income students in U.S. public schools now make up the majority, according to the latest data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics. A report prepared by the Southern Education Foundation found that Southern states made up 12 of the 14 states with the highest rates of low-income students."

"That challenge inspired Jones to create Yes We Code, an initiative of his Rebuild the Dream organization that aims to teach 100,000 low-income kids to write code. Prince promoted the initiative in July by headlining the Essence Festival in New Orleans where Yes We Code held its first hackathon."