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"The last thing high poverty school districts need is to lose resources to provide programs and services to support students who need extra help to achieve. That's why Grand Rapids schools pulled out all the stops this summer and in the days leading up to Wednesday, Count Day, to get students in class. All public schools in Michigan were required to count the students attending their schools. That figure determines 90 percent of the state's per-pupil funding."

"Dockery said the core of the grant would be spent on schools where more than 40 percent of the students receive free or reduced lunches, a measure of poverty in Fairfax. She said that although Fairfax County is one of the most affluent in the nation, nearly 42,000 students live below the poverty line and as many as 2,500 are homeless."

"The importance of the school breakfast program comes against a backdrop of rising child poverty and a push by advocates to have schools serve breakfast early in the school day -- but after the bell has sounded. Those advocates say many schools have been unable to get children to arrive early enough for breakfast before that first bell rings, so it's important to serve it in the first few minutes of the school day -- during morning announcements, attendance and other warm-up activities."

"New Jersey saw a 21 percent rise in the number of low-income students who get school breakfasts, but it still lags far behind most other states, a report released Tuesday found. In South Jersey, seven charter schools or districts were among 64 high-poverty districts statewide where less than 31 percent of eligible students receive subsidized school breakfasts, according to the study by Advocates for Children of New Jersey, a nonprofit child research and action organization."

"The Price of Inequality,' by Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton. It's a searing read. We are paying a high price for our inequality an economic system that is less stable and less efficient, with less growth,' Stiglitz warns. []but a focus on inner-city and rural education including early childhood programs and job training. That approach would expand opportunity, even up the starting line, and chip away at cycles of poverty. If the cost means forcing tycoons to pay modestly higher taxes, so be it. The economy wouldn't suffer."

"Seven South Jersey charter schools or districts were among 64 high-poverty districts statewide where less than 31 percent of eligible students receive subsidized school breakfasts, according a report being released today in Newark."

"The poll, conducted by the Texas Lyceum, a leadership development group, shows three-fourths of Texans favor either regulating tuition or offsetting the costs for low-income students to make college more affordable. It suggests public support for tackling record tuition costs, which were deregulated in 2003. State leaders firmly oppose returning to regulated rates, and some are pushing other ways to take on the issue."

"About 2,000 Metro Nashville students will get a major boost toward higher education, thanks to a $3.4 million grant from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. The GEAR UP' grant was awarded to the Metro school system earlier this week and will help fund programs that target low-income middle and high school students who could become the first members of their family to attend college."

"Equally problematic, when low-income students are denied access to middle-income schools, they see the poverty levels go up and the achievement levels go down in the schools they attend. They are deprived of meaningful interaction with students who, because of family education or wealth, have a very different life expectation and understanding of education's role in achieving that expectation."

"Out of the 556 elementary schools in Utah, Jackson Elementary was chosen to host the special visit because of its low-income demographics. Eighty percent of the school's students are minorities and 87 percent are at an economic disadvantage, according to information from the State Office of Education. That's why, for low-income schools like Jackson Elementary, instilling in young students a love of reading is critical,' said Herbert."

"A decade after Congress passed the No Child Left Behind law, educators are as divided as ever on the law's key goal: how to improve educational outcomes for poor children. On one side, an influential group of educators says the stresses and deprivations of poverty doom kids' aspirations -- cure poverty, they say, and education will follow. On the other side are educators who say a more competitive, focused and accountable education system will lift kids out of poverty by giving them a ticket to college and the middle class."

"The transformation of the school, which serves a majority of students from low-income and underserved families and climbed from the lowest performance level in 2010 after a virtual gutting of their former teaching staff, board of directors and superintendent, has been remarkable,' Massachusetts Education Secretary Paul Reville said at a celebration ceremony at the school Monday."