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Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity leads research and consulting initiatives that identify and address barriers to economic well-being.
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The Boston Herald, December 22, 2013: (Op-Ed) Homelessness a crisis in schools
"Boston Public Schools are facing significant challenges many of which, including turnaround schools, busing costs, and deteriorating buildings, are well known. Yet increasingly, school leaders are counting higher percentages of homeless children among their student body. It's an issue that's largely been kept quiet, but one that puts our city's children and education system at significant risk. To continue to ignore the problem simply because there's not an easy solution is unacceptable."
The Pensacola News Journal, December 22, 2013: Hungry for the holidays: Many seniors cannot afford enough to eat
"Medically disability and living below the poverty line, Frison often goes to bed hungry. Even more often since she lost her food stamp benefits four months ago."
The Orange County Register, December 22, 2013: Homeless students struggle to keep up
"It's a challenge that's ratcheting up pressure on educators who struggle to aid students who have fallen years behind their classmates after a lifetime of bouncing between hotels, shelters and cramped multi-family apartments."
The Battle Creek Enquirer, December 19, 2013: (Editorial) Editorial: Kids Count data on poverty should prompt policy response
"If we want to reduce the number of children living in poverty, we need to begin making different choices. If the Kids Count data released on Monday tells us anything, it may be that we're not even having the right conversations."
The Detroit Free Press, December 19, 2013: $52M federal grant will benefit education of 182,000 low-income Michigan children
"Michigan has about 182,000 children ages 3 to kindergarten from low-income families who will benefit from the federal grant, State Superintendent Mike Flanagan said."
Newsday, December 18, 2013: Charity offers at-home parenting help for at-risk East End families
"A Southold charity is recruiting families for an in-home teaching program for impoverished parents with young children."
The Daily Press, December 18, 2013: More local children living in poverty
"More children in Delta, Schoolcraft, and Menominee counties are growing up in families who are struggling to make ends meet, according to new figures released Tuesday through the 2013 Kids Count in Michigan report."
The Cumberland Times-News, December 18, 2013: Homeless student population rises in Maryland
"Jones is one of thousands of students in Maryland who have experienced homelessness. The number of K-12 students identifying as homeless in U.S. public schools hit a record high 1.2 million during the 2011-2012 school year, according to the U.S. Department of Education."
The Detroit News, December 16, 2013: Wayne State's new first lady tackles homelessness
"Wilson, who married WSU President M. Roy Wilson on Dec. 7, couldn't believe it. Soon after, she decided to find ways to ease the challenges homeless students face so they could get their degrees and turn their lives around. With the support of her husband and others, Jacqueline Wilson intends to champion the cause of homelessness on campus and in Detroit as Wayne State's first lady."
The Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2013: (Editorial) Making California's new school funding formula work
"The state's new formula for funding schools is a tremendous gift for districts that enroll large numbers of disadvantaged students. But it's not quite the giveaway some of them had expected."
The Washington Post, December 16, 2013: Options D.C. charter school's Medicaid billing is at center of investigation
"Federal investigators are looking into whether former leaders of the District's Options Public Charter School committed Medicaid fraud by, among other things, exaggerating the needs of its disabled students and paying students with gift cards to ride school buses, according to several people familiar with the criminal investigation."
The New Haven Register, December 15, 2013: Connecticut's invisible homeless are youths
"But schools rely heavily on self-reporting to count homeless students, and unaccompanied homeless teens, like Kemp, often evade the same authorities who would count and connect them with services."
