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"The Obama administration will propose a $5 billion competitive grant program to encourage states to overhaul the teaching profession, federal education officials said Tuesday, using its Race to the Top school improvement competition as a model."

"For example, out of 55 countries in an Urban Institute study of countries that succeed in improving academic achievement of low-income children, the U.S. ranked 36th, according to the Education Trust, a nonprofit that focuses on closing the gap."

"Further, dropping out puts a teenager on a rocky life path, one marked by struggles, setbacks, and, in many cases, pathologies. `When you look at unemployment rates, poverty rates, incarceration rates, all of the things that have huge negative impacts and huge costs to society are all tied to high school dropouts,'' Duncan adds. One example: Dropouts make up 70 percent of this state's jail and prison population."

"As we reflect on how U.S. presidents have influenced the course of our national life, their consistent support for serving at-risk children exemplifies the true American spirit."

"With grant funding, the district has bought more than 400 iPads in the last year - a small step toward one for each of its 10,000 students. Most of them are in Jefferson, Merrill, Roosevelt and Washington elementary schools - schools given the 'School of Recognition' title because their students test better on state standardized tests than would be anticipated based on their poverty levels. A handful of the devices are also at West and North high schools."

"Public interest lawyers and advocates cited statistics that show the current law unfairly targets Latinos, blacks and low-income students while doing little to curb truancy.And the council members agreed."

"Wisconsin lawmakers are considering whether to lift an unpopular cap to a state program that keeps elderly and disabled people out of nursing homes... Family Care helps about 43,000 low-income adults with developmental or physical disabilities avoid nursing home placements. Thousands are on a waiting list to enroll."

"Mr. Obama has for years sought to expand resources for community colleges, the main source of education and job training for most low-income Americans. In the American Graduation Initiative he announced in 2009, Mr. Obama proposed to bolster the work force by producing millions more community college graduates over the next decade. "

"North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue is sounding an alarm about early childhood education funding by spending time this week with young schoolchildren... A judge said last year the General Assembly went too far in the state budget and put obstacles in the way of low-income families to benefit from the state's prekindergarten program."

"'I believe there has always been a need, but because of the economy there is a greater need,' said Bill Curtis, principal of Chipman Elementary. 'We see it in our high rate of students eligible for Free and Reduced Meals, and our number of students who are homeless. Thanks to this community partnership, the children will no longer have to be hungry and tired.'"

"The similarities among schools in urban and rural settings where he worked New Orleans, Tensas, Baton Rouge were strong, he said. 'One of the biggest things we had in common is the poverty and the background these kids come from. It wasn't so much about race as much as poverty,' said Dobard, an African-American."

"The Relationship between spending evermore money on schooling and student achievement isn't what it's cracked up to be. Even the vaunted student-teacher ratio doesn't always tell us what we want to know. Exhibit One is the Sausalito Marin City School District. For its non-charter primary and middle school students it expends an eye-popping $41,872 per year. That's more than the $40,050 tuition that Stanford University charges full-time undergraduate students."