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"There's an increasingly common ritual at suburban schools on Fridays. It has nothing to do with football games or pep rallies. Instead, more and more kids are picking up bags of food to make sure they don't go hungry over the weekend."

"The Justice Department has challenged my state in court for having the temerity to start a scholarship program that frees low-income minority children from failing schools. In other words, Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder would rip children out of their schools and handcuff them to the failing schools they previously attended."

"That's the game in the summer for many homeless parents - trying to persuade your friends or family to let you stay with them ���just until hypothermia,� when the city is bound by law to house everyone. The shelters start taking families again, and the population at D.C. General crawls back up to 600."

"This school year, for the first time, EdChoice is helping a different kind of student, those who live in low-income homes but who don't attend or live near poorly performing public schools. This expanded EdChoice program will give vouchers to students whose family income is at or below twice the 2012 federal poverty line, or $46,100 for a family of four."

"Ninety-nine percent of Van Buren students come from families who live in poverty. The surrounding neighborhood is home to low-income farmworkers and Spanish-speaking migrant families. Across the street sits a homeless shelter that has sent more students to the school since the recession began. These are the telltale signs of a struggling school, but Van Buren bucks convention."

"As the school year quickly approaches, Head Start programs will have fewer children in their classrooms -- but not because administrators don't want them there. Wide-ranging federal budget cuts, also known as the sequester, have hit preschool programs hard."

"Then came a shortfall of $86.6 million for Kentucky's Department for Community Based Services, leading to major budget cuts, most of which were borne by the Child Care Assistance Program. That program offers subsidies to low-income parents who are working or in school."

"Jackson also showed a video produced by Horizons National, an educational summer enrichment program that serves low-income, public school students by partnering with educational entities.Its leaders believe that summer learning loss is perpetuating the poverty problem because children from middle- and upper-class households have greater opportunities for continued learning during the summer months."

"The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, is cutting hospitals' reimbursements from Medicare the federal program that provides health care to the elderly by $155 billion. When the law was passed, hospital officials agreed to the cut believing that patients covered by the new law who previously had been uninsured would more than make up the difference.But hospital officials are growing increasingly worried as it becomes apparent the law will not expand health care to as many people as they had hoped."

"For low-income kids, public institutions that feed their intellectual growth --- schools, after-school programs, community centers --- are not replaced during the summer months by private opportunities, marine biology camp at Tybee Island or fly fishing with dad in Wyoming, leading to a loss of skills."

"Eight Maine hospitals have sued U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius over the government's handling of millions of dollars in payments for some low-income and elderly patients."

"Idaho Core Standards, tougher requirements for what students should learn, could cause a drop in student proficiency on tests and widen the gap between struggling and successful learners."