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Commentary: Deborah Axt, Make the Road New York

"In his most ambitious overhaul effort yet, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed to dramatically change how California funds education. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Assembly Speaker John A. P̩rez, D-Los Angeles, in their final years in the Legislature, should get behind the governor's effort. Brown's idea is to replace state-mandated categorical programs with a new formula that provides a basic level of funding, with additional money for disadvantaged students and those learning English."

"One of the most important, and least considered, factors influencing what happens in classrooms is what happens in lunchrooms. That's because lunchrooms are where a school's relationship to the socioeconomic realities of its community are most glaringly apparent. As much as we argue over myriad issues surrounding education from testing to charter schools to teachers unions there is an insurmountable truth in the lunchroom: Impoverished children bring massive challenges into schools. Many of the problems that have been identified as school failures stem as much from poverty as anything."

"Local educators say those attendance rates the number of actual days of attendance divided by the possible days of attendance are overall very good, but there still is room for improvement. Students from families that qualify for free- and reduced-price school meals, which a measurement of family's economic status, typically rank about 1 percentage to 3 percentage points behind their more affluent peers. Although 1 percent might not seem like much, in reality it means that low-income students don't spend as many hours in class, and that could be a substantial reason why they typically lag behind in typical measurements of academic performance, educators say."

"Nearly half of the nation's elderly population is economically vulnerable' and would be particularly hard hit by even modest changes in the Social Security and Medicare programs being considered to slow the growth of the nation's long-term debt, according to a new report. The liberal Economic Policy Institute said that 48 percent of the elderly population earns less than double the supplemental poverty threshold, putting those seniors at financial risk if their income is cut even slightly."

"Addressing the needs of children who come from low-income families also was a key theme among educators at the forum. Low-income students are more likely to be absent from class and drop out."

"'Under the governor's proposal, it will be a lot better,' Cannella said. There is a great injustice in funding. Palo Alto gets $14,000 per student, while in Merced County it's $6,200 per student. Merced County has the second-highest poverty rate in the state.'"

"An LAUSD recount of applications for Title I funding determined that four more schools qualified to receive thousands of dollars in federal anti-poverty money, officials said Wednesday. A total of about $182,000 will be shared in 2013-14 by Daniel Pearl High School in Lake Balboa, Enadia Way Charter Elementary in West Hills, Atwater Elementary in Silver Lake and the Performing Arts Community School in South L.A., said Matt Hill, the district's strategy officer."

"Brain research shows a child's intellectual capacity is largely set before he ever reaches kindergarten. Poor children are far less likely than middle-class children to receive the sort of brain stimulation they need at home. High-quality child development programs can increase that capacity, and our state's 4K program has won national note for doing just that."

"For years, students, teachers and administrators in California's poorest districts have been given every disadvantage possible. Brown wants to fix that injustice. We hope the Legislature will work with him to find a truly just solution."

"Forty-six seniors were honored earlier this week with four-year college tuition scholarships totaling more than $780,000 from The Foundation for Lee County Public Schools' Take Stock in Children program. The students are from low-income families and were selected as scholarship recipients in sixth and ninth grades. In order to receive the full scholarships, each of the students had to sign contracts promising to maintain good grades and behavior, meet with their assigned mentor regularly and stay away from crime and drugs."

"The Let�s Get Ready program has been awarded a $3,000 grant from the Betty Beland Greater Lawrence Summer Fund, a fund of the Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF). Let�s Get Ready will use the money to support its Lawrence program and help low-income and first-generation, college-bound students from the Greater Lawrence area attend college."