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"Created by the NCOA, BenefitsCheckUp is a free, confidential web-based service that helps low-income seniors and their families identify federal, state and private benefits programs that can help with prescription drug costs, health care, utilities, and other basic needs."

"As the Boulder Valley School District figures out where to cut about $6 million from next school year's budget, parents at high poverty schools are hearing that their schools could lose resources. School principals last week received base "staffing allocation" numbers, which at elementary schools include classroom teachers and specialists like art teachers. "

"For more than four decades, Miami-Dade County officials have managed Head Start, the storied preschool program for children from low-income families. But the county now wants out and 'generous' salaries are partly to blame. On average, Miami-Dade paid its Head Start teachers $76,860 in salary and fringe benefits in 2011, county records show."

"But as one teacher, Rebecca Sayler of Atlanta, wrote to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, 'If you get rid of all of the bad teachers ... we will still have students who are reading below grade level and unable to demonstrate even basic skills in other areas. That's because the main problem in education isn't teachers. The main problem is poverty.'"

"Cummings has had a passion for helping the homeless veterans population for years. In fact, she wrote a graduate paper on homeless veterans during college at Siena Heights. She graduated in 2008 with a master's degree in organizational leadership."

"Reedy said the budget for the entire project is between $200,000 and $250,000, which will come from Title I funds - a federal funding stream earmarked for the education of low-income students. She said it will not affect the budgets of other low-income schools."

"Though the progress reports are assumed to control for demographics like poverty and race, an analysis by The New York Times indicates that schools with the most middle-class students get the best grades."

"He and others note that federal law restricts schools from charging fees to low-income families, which is why many children are on free or reduced-price lunch programs. 'For a district like Granite City, we have a lot of free-and-reduced families. You can't pass that along,' said Briggs. 'I don't believe you could charge enough to break even' by charging just the higher-income students for bus service."

"Finally, most schools spend vast amounts of time and resources trying to compensate for disadvantages some students bring to class. Some packaged programs call it 'asset building,' while others exhort schools to build 'bridges out of poverty.'"

"Joe Masterson remembers his mother, Mabel, helping the homeless when he grew up in Roxbury, and in her memory the 75-year-old Dorchester contractor is going above and beyond to get homeless elders into new housing."

"In just three years, Highland had gone from the verge of a state takeover to reporting that virtually every student passed standardized reading exams. This would be impressive anywhere. Highland did it with huge proportions of students who lived in poverty and, perhaps more important, who came from homes where no one spoke English."

"The high school rankings are based on test scores, percentage of students taking advanced classes, graduation rates and other measures. Children at Risk also rates middle and elementary schools. The analysis credits schools that have high poverty rates but manage to excel."