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"[A] new Kaiser Family Foundation report finds that the SPM poverty rate for senior citizens is actually higher than the official rate: 15 percent vs. 9 percent. And when you include people living within 200 percent of the poverty line, the picture under SPM looks even worse."

"The Louisiana voucher law gives up most accountability for school finances or student achievement when it hands over the taxpayers' check. The schools that take fewer than 40 voucher students are not even be required to show any data for their students' learning. These schools are not required to hire certified teachers or teach the skills students need for higher education and the workplace in the 21st century."

"Rios and his neighbors in the low-income senior housing where he lives on Wilmington's west side are one segment of the growing population of older adults in the First State, where nearly a third of residents are projected to be 60 or older by 2030. Delaware is grappling with how to provide needed services for this surge of residents, many of whom wish to stay in their communities."

"Many low-income families look to their children to assist with the family business or otherwise contribute to the family's income. They see the short-term need for money to support the family and not the long-term benefits of education. This is a crisis that has a solution. At Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, our 2020 goal is to have 90 percent of the children in our clubs graduate on time by providing valuable out-of-school programs."

"Medical costs are a reason that AARP and other senior advocacy groups believe the government's poverty threshold needs to be replaced with an experimental, more detailed measurement called the Supplemental Poverty Measure."

"Examples of housing instability include a student in the foster-care system or in a joint-custody situation, or families that face homelessness or are in temporary shelters due to an inability to pay rent or a mortgage. Lauren Greene, a representative of the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), said homelessness looks different in the Berkshires than it does in urban areas, leading to a lower student mobility rate in the county when the two are compared."

"Because there is a relationship between economic advantage and student performance, students of disadvantaged households are more likely to develop feelings of apathy. This is a major problem facing our institution, especially as 20% of American children are living in poverty. The level of achievement required of all students - including those in poverty - places a lot of pressure on schools."

"The Brattleboro School Board at its meeting this week approved a plan by Early Education Services to cut 25 Head Start classroom slots, and another 12 Early Head Start home-based visiting slots due to the federal cuts that will go into place on July 1. Early Education Services Executive Director Debra Gass said the cuts had to be made after Congress failed to address the sequester earlier this year and the EES budget, which starts on July 1, had to be put in place."

"As Richard Weissbourd continues to find teachers and schools focusing on the life-diminishing troubles of the increasing number of low-income children across the nation, I'll be reporting them here along with those I discover elsewhere."

"All the while, low-income students' parents cannot pay for books or games. They cannot afford tutors or extra curricular and enrichment activities. They generally have to work more and consequently cannot spend a lot of individual time with their kids. For that same reason, they cannot volunteer in classrooms. Sometimes they do not have sufficient education to help their kids with schoolwork. And they often do not bestow the value of education upon their children."

"The latest barrier being put in the way of children's interests is the decision by the Louisiana Supreme Court that the funding method for the Louisiana Scholarship Program is unconstitutional. Fortunately there is a fix. Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Legislature must find a different method to fund the program, which allows some low-income families to send their children to private and parochial schools."

"This spreadsheet lists each grade at each school from this past fall's Iowa Assessments. The first four columns represent school-wide percentile rankings in main subject areas."