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"Teachers who got bad-performance ratings in the past school year were likelier to be teaching in high-poverty schools or in schools with high percentages of black, Hispanic or low-achieving students, a new analysis found. The StudentsFirstNY report on the roughly 3 percent of teachers who were rated unsatisfactory' - known as a U-rating' - for the 2011-12 school year found that they were distributed unequally throughout the system."

"LePage's first two-year budget, introduced two years ago, targeted the state's welfare programs more heavily. It allowed the state to cut off food stamps, or TANF benefits, to drug felons convicted within the past 20 years who failed a series of drug tests. The state, however, hasn't implemented that provision of the budget, citing potential implementation costs and the potential that courts won't allow drug testing as a condition for receiving welfare benefits. Apart from the budget proposal, the LePage administration is proposing to prohibit convicted drug felons from receiving TANF benefits."

"None should be able to sleep at night knowing that high-poverty schools, which employ 45% of the city's teachers, are stuck with 54% of the instructors who received unsatisfactory ratings in the 2011-12 school year. At low-poverty schools, where 15% of the teaching force works, just 7% got U ratings last year."

"Poverty among schoolchildren in Kansas and Missouri is on the rise, according to statistics from the National School Lunch Program. Administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the program tracks student eligibility for free or reduced-priced meals offered to low-income families."

"According to the U.S. Department of Education, the National School Lunch program, which provides free or reduced-price meals to children of low-income families, experienced steady expansion in Massachusetts between 2006 and 2011. As of the close of the 2010/2011 academic year, some 34.2 percent of the state's K-12 students were enrolled in the free and reduced-price lunch program, compared to 28.9 percent in the 2006/2007 academic year."

"Gov. Jerry Brown will give more than $2 billion extra to K-12 districts next school year and again ask lawmakers to direct more funding to impoverished students and English learners in his budget plan today, according to education sources familiar with the proposal."

"Harrison is a traditional American folk musician, storyteller and dance caller, and for the past year he has visited the Tubman Center courtesy of the Howard County Arts Council's Head Start in Art program, which provides hands-on experiences in the arts for the county's low-income families. The program began in 2000 in conjunction with the Ellicott City Head Start Center and expanded to the Tubman Center last year."

"In the Bridge Magazine analysis, the school had the largest value-added matrix (VAM) in Genesee County. Bridge used the VAM to determine its 2012 Academic State Champs. Bridge Magazine is celebrating schools that are finding ways to push learning through the socioeconomic ceiling."

"Utah Valley University broke ground Thursday on an expansion of its child-care center for low-income students. Designed to help more parents finish college, the 14,000-square-foot Wee Care Center at 1138 S. 400 West in Orem, will be able to hold 110 children when complete."

"Seminole school-district officials have backed away from realigning elementary-school attendance zones based on equalizing the number of low-income students at each school. Complaints from members of committees redrawing attendance zones, as well as parents concerned that their children would be forced to switch schools, prompted district officials to "clarify" how the percentage of low-income students should figure into the mix."

"The money is transformational' for Futures, whose annual budget is about $2.8 million. It will support the organization's strategic plan and fund a new program that could annually help up to 800 low-income, first-generation-to-college students with precollege guidance and continuing support through college graduation, Mazzotti said."

"Clearly the problems that create pockets of poverty are larger than the school district can handle by itself. Educators can help students and families learn to better their situations, but such transformations won't happen simply because students are forced to attend a different school. Such transformations happen when students learn to read, to do their multiplication tables, to stay fit and active, and to love music and art."