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"While independence may become more challenging with age, a little assistance can go a long way in keeping people safely in their own homes. Alabama's Medicaid program should make this a priority in its spending for long-term care."

"Coachella Valley Unified will issue iPads to all 19,000 students -- preschool through high school -- by November. A tablet rollout of this scale would be a hefty undertaking for any school district, but it is especially ambitious in Coachella Valley Unified, which estimates that about 90% of students live in poverty."

"Students in certain cities across the country can now eat free school meals regardless of family income as part of a new, experimental federal initiative."

"The poverty rate for students in Jasper County schools is also 86 percent. The per capita family income in the entire county is just under $18,000, well below the government-designated poverty level of $23,550 for a family of four. This is very troubling because it is very well established that the number one predictor of classroom achievement is family income."

"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."

"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."