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"Signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 at the same time as Medicare and Medicaid, the OAA provides federal funding for essential senior services like job training, caregiver support, transportation, preventative healthcare, meals and protection from abuse and financial exploitation. Funding for the legislation has failed to keep pace with inflation and population growth for decades. Under sequestration, an additional $40 million will be cut from senior meal programs alone, which means that as many as 19 million fewer meals will be available to seniors who need them."

"A trio of utility assistance plans for Oxnard's poorest residents, with costs ranging from $200,000 to $2 million a year, will be considered by the City Council on Tuesday night. The slimmest proposal would subsidize utility bills for qualifying seniors at an estimated annual cost of $200,000. Up to 663 households could qualify for the recommended $25 monthly discount, staff members think. The discount would be available for low-income households led by someone 65 or older."

"Our poverty problem is getting worse, not better. According to a 2013 report by the National Center for Education Statistics, about one in five public schools was considered high poverty in 2011meaning that 75 percent or more of their enrolled students qualified for free or reduced-price lunchup from about to one in eight in 2000.'"

"Gray said that the sequester cuts in some cases are more significant in rural areas where families might have to travel forty miles one way' than in a larger metropolitan city, where two or three blocks away there might be another option.' Rural America often gets overlooked. We know Kansas is referred to as a Flyover State',' said Gray. But there are a lot of people here, and a lot of people in poverty.'"

"The financial penalties that Medicare imposes on hospitals with high rates of patient readmissions are too harsh for hospitals serving the poor and should be changed, according to a congressional advisory agency."

"SOAR stands for Skills, Opportunity, Achievement and Reward and is designed to help residents who might not otherwise have the chance to attend school, take some classes. The tuition reimbursement program is funded through a Community Development Block Grant the village received and will be applied to all qualified low-income families, as long as they meet the requirements."

"Now, as President Obama pushes a proposal to provide public preschool for all 4-year-olds from families with low or moderate incomes, his administration acknowledges that many children will attend classes outside the public schools."

"Under the plan, the federal government would offer grants to states that choose to enroll 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. The plan calls for the federal share to gradually diminish from 91 percent initially to 25 percent after 10 years. In addition to preschool, Obama is seeking $15 billion for education programs for babies and toddlers."

"Some experts criticize a rise in state poverty grant' money for wealthier school districts, including the ones in Glenview and Northbrook, but local administrators and parents say the funding is warranted and needed."

"Welcome to Educare, a state-of-the-art $16 million preschool that education officials consider a model for the nation. It is part of a national network of high-quality early education facilities aimed at low-income children and funded with private and public money."

"Started in 1965 as part of the War on Poverty, Head Start aims to address the social, emotional, and academic needs of more than a million children in classrooms nationwide as well as aid their families. Students learn ABCs, numbers, and science basics, most notably, in one Jamaica Plain classroom, about caterpillars. Head Start is one of a broad range of programs, such as those that provide housing for the poor and shelter for the homeless, that are beginning to suffer from the impact of sequestration, the term applied to sweeping federal spending cuts intentionally forged to be so dire that they would force Washington lawmakers to reach a compromise on reducing the nation's deficit."

"Low academic achievement has been linked to poverty in education research and Sandburg is among schools with student test scores low enough for the state Department of Public Instruction to label it a focus' school in need of more interventions to close the achievement gap. Wilfrid points out, though, that the school also was recognized for a greater-than-expected rate of improvement among its English language learners."