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"If passed, the measure would establish a pilot program to give $10,000 annual bonuses and other incentives to highly rated teachers who transfer to high-needs schools, where at least 75 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, the schools indicator of poverty, and where fewer than 40 percent of students are proficient in math and reading."

"When Head Start was launched in 1964 as a piece of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, Bill Ferzacca traveled as a national consultant, informing people about how the new federal law would help disadvantaged children get better prepared for kindergarten."

"'If all our neighborhoods were racially and economically integrated, it'd certainly be more convenient to have a system based on neighborhood schools,' said Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and the editor of the new book."

"A new dual language class, iPads for third-graders and an initiative aimed at boosting learning for children in poverty are all coming to Bruce Drysdale Elementary School, but school board members have stopped short of merging the school with its higher-performing neighbor."

"Early language and literacy skills are powerful predictors of a child's future success in school. Abundant research exists that attests to the challenges faced by children who enter kindergarten lacking basic early literacy skills. These skills are developed when adults read to children regularly beginning at birth."

"When officials in Frederick County, Maryland voted last year to stop paying for the local Head Start preschool program, they pointed to a nearly $12 million projected budget shortfall as proof that the mostly rural county could no longer afford it."

"The measure would have allowed Arizona schools to opt out of the National School Lunch Program, which offers low-income pupils free or reduced-price lunches at most public schools. Charter schools and private schools are exempt from the federal program."

"A bill that would allow Arizona schools to opt out of a federal program that subsidizes lunches for poor children proved too much of a lightning rod for its sponsor, who requested the measure be shelved for the session."

"Student suspension numbers are higher than the other seven elementary schools combined. More than 80 percent of the children live in poverty, a factor educators say can be an obstacle to school success. Administrators and teachers are under pressure from state and federal education departments to show improvement."

"There are several causes for the rapid rise in the cost of an education at California's public universities. The state has cut back dramatically its share of the costs. Also, cutting fees for low-income students, which we support, means that middle-income families that do not qualify for financial help must take on more of the burden."

"Because of a federal budget cut, thousands of low-income students across the nation may not be able to afford the fees for their Advanced Placement exams this spring -- exams that could save them thousands of dollars in college tuition."

"Currently, so many of our children are growing up in poverty that 35 percent of 5-year-olds do not have age-appropriate language skills, one-third of third-graders are not reading at grade level, and 28 percent of our students are dropping out of school before graduation. And only one-third of our at-risk preschool children have access to quality preschool programs."