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"Park Creek -- the highest poverty-level school in the Dalton School district -- has multiple extra challenges such as some students learning English in class. But the elementary is an exception to the rule when it comes to high-poverty schools, scoring higher than most other schools in the district in each of the core subjects in third grade on the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests."

"Unfortunately, the best predictor of test performance in the United States is family income. That would suggest that we should work to alleviate the crushing effects on children of our ingrained economic inequality, which is the worst of any wealthy nation. Instead we choose to blame teachers and schools when children who are hungry, homeless or lacking in medical care do poorly on standardized tests."

"The effect on Medicaid is potentially even more troublesome. The program for low-income people is currently funded by both the federal government and states. The more people who sign up, the more money that must be allocated. Ryan's plan would change that. It would have Uncle Sam provide states with a limited "block grant" of Medicaid funds that states would be free to use as best they can."

"Poverty is a common thread among the area's struggling schools, but Michigan's new accountability system revealed weaknesses at buildings that passed the old system with flying colors."

"The fact is that older Americans are doing pretty well financially - by some measures, better than the rest of us. Only 9 percent of Americans older than 65 had incomes below the poverty line in 2010, according to a Census Bureau report in November. By contrast, 13.7 percent of the general population was living in poverty - including 22 percent of children younger than 18. The elderly poverty rate is higher under a different statistical definition designed to reflect seniors' greater out-of-pocket medical costs, but it still remains slightly below that of the general population."

"Strategic staffing was supposed to be the key to making the new combined elementary/middle schools successful, even though national researchers had warned such mergers haven't proved effective as a turnaround tactic for high-poverty urban schools."

"Economic inequity is the great conundrum schools and minority families face. If it were purely about racism, there is a clear remedy in the court system and in the Constitution. Instead, the need is for new funding partners for schools that have high numbers of low-income students. Continually pouring money into the same, already affluent school year after year is of limited value if that school shares a district with many struggling schools."

"Like roughly half of the district, the North Charleston school has a CORE team of school staff members who identify children who aren't doing well and find ways to help them. Like only four others in the tri-county area, Hunley Park Elementary has been recognized as a state Reward Schools for Progress. Qualifying schools were required to serve a majority low-income student population, and about 80 percent of Hunley Park's students fall into that category."

"The U.S. Department of Education reinstated the program's funding for the next five years. Upward Bound, which prepares low-income students for college, will receive just more than $414,000 from Sept. 1 to Aug. 31, 2017."

"Albuquerque Public Schools will cover the full cost of breakfast and lunch this year for about 7,000 low-income students who normally pay a discounted price for meals."

"Hannah's Treasure Chest, a Centerville-based children's charity, partnered with Sogeti USA and 12 other local business partners to provide school supplies for underprivileged children in the Dayton area."

"Educators closest to the classroom, in partnership with their local community, are best able to determine how to educate all students and reduce the achievement gap that now threatens the futures of English learners and students who live in poverty. When designing a weighted pupil formula, it's important that the weights given to students challenged by poverty or English learning be large enough to make a difference."