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"The Obama administration is ordering states to devise strategies to get better teachers into high-poverty classrooms, correcting a national imbalance in which students who need the most help are often taught by the weakest educators."

"Many impoverished Central Florida kids eat their most nutritious school meals at no charge, but qualifying for the free and reduced-price meals can sometimes be a headache for families and schools."

"During the meeting, Goldberg told the board the program offers temporary assistance to at-risk, low-income families to keep them from becoming homeless."

"Hunger relief workers are getting creative at keeping small bellies full when U.S. schools - along with their free or reduced-price meals - close for summer."

"This past school year, 327 students in the Houston County school system were identified as homeless. There are degrees of homelessness, said Jennifer Birdsong, the system's director of federal programs."

"And while poor diet is often a choice that bacon-and-cheese shrouded megaburger is just too tempting it often is imposed by poverty. Low-income folks may turn to unhealthy food because it is cheaper, or because healthier fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, aren't readily available in the "food deserts" in which they may live."

"On average, 48 percent of parents nationwide reported reading to their children every day, according to the 2011-12 National Survey of Children's Health. Among families living below the poverty line, only 34 percent read to their children daily. Higher-income families, who earned at least 400 percent of the federal poverty threshold, did somewhat better: Sixty percent read daily to their youngsters."

"Thousands more students could be eating school lunch completely free starting next fall, thanks to a 4-year-old federal program that is finally expanding to all 50 states."