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"The debate over a private learning option for poor schoolchildren in North Carolina has a familiar ring to it because Florida faced similar fears a dozen years ago. But a targeted and accountable scholarship can strengthen our commitment to equal educational opportunity by giving more tools to the students who face the greatest odds."

"Poverty has a massive impact on our students, and it is without question an enormous challenge in the work of educators in Memphis. It is critical that states and cities, churches and nonprofit organizations, businesses and civic groups work together with schools and continue to address the underlying causes of poverty."

"More than half of Springfield students straddle the poverty line, and it's higher - three out of every five - at the elementary level. Teachers like Tate know that home-life worries, left unchecked, can disrupt the students' ability to learn."

"Eligible seniors pay for the one-bedroom units based on their income. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides subsidies when needed. That means a one-bedroom at the building might go for $400 per month instead of an market value topping $1,000 monthly, developers said."

"It can be as much as a three-month loss for kids from low-income families, a month for those in more advantaged situations. The difference? Middle-income families can afford tutors if a child needs such, they may take vacations that stimulate the brain, they may enroll their offspring in camps and other programs that keep them thinking. Head Start families may not be able to afford any of those things."

"The penalties worry some health care experts who say facilities serving low-income communities will be hit the hardest by the new program, part of the 2010 federal health care reform law. Confirming their fears, most of the eight hospitals in California paying the stiffest penalties this year are located in low-income areas, according to the latest numbers released by Medicare in March."

"Eligible seniors must earn no more than $1,862 monthly, or $21,780 annually, to receive an average monthly food stamp allocation of $170. But eligibility is fluid, advocates point out. Medical expenses, after the first $35, are subtracted from the income level and housing or rental costs are factored in. Locally, SNAP advocates point to the "stigma" those eligible might feel in using the benefit."

"While universities prefer race-based programs that assemble generally well-off students of all colors, the end of such programs will likely usher in a more aggressive set of policies that will, at long last, address America's growing economic divide."

"Despite the clear benefits of increasing the state's higher education attainment rate, the two major pathways for adult education in California the K-12 school districts and the California community colleges do not have a strategy to increase the rates of the adult enrollment and completion of some higher education."

"Three of the schools are getting a new principal, while two will keep their current leaders. Teachers are reapplying for their jobs, and at least one school already is advertising teaching positions for the coming year. The goal is to improve student performance by changing the school's culture. At high-poverty schools, where students sometimes are years behind their peers academically, the turnaround is an uphill slog."

"McDaniel showed up on a New America best' list, with 28 percent of its full-time students qualified for Pell Grants (that is, low-income) and their families paying an average net price of $9,778 per year. Tuition and room and board at McDaniel for the 2010-2011 academic year, the one examined in the report, was $40,340. McDaniel has been working at this earnestly since 2006. It reports minority enrollment more than doubling from 12 percent in 2007 to 29 percent in 2012 and nearly 40 percent of freshmen this year were first-generation collegians."

"Many of Florida's 24,580 teaching assistants do the work for hourly pay that's low enough to qualify them and a dependent for food stamps. In Lake County, beginning assistants are paid an average of $12,571, according to a state survey last year -- an amount so low that a single person with a child would be below the federal poverty line."