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"Samantha Garvey, a science whiz kid living in a Long Island homeless shelter, will go to the State of the Union address. Her congressman, Steve Israel, D-N.Y., invited the student to attend the president's speech, offering her his guest ticket."

"Fifteen students who are enrolled in a three-week winter term course will participate in the Blount County point-in-time homeless count, a national data collection effort commissioned by the Department of Housing and Urban Development that asks each community to count its homeless residents on one day. "

"Kids from low-income families who start kindergarten without first attending a quality education program enter school an estimated 18 months behind their peers. Many never catch up, and research shows they are more likely to need special education services and to drop out. Kids in families with higher incomes also can benefit from early education, research shows."

"It's like hiring the fox to guard the henhouse," said David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center in Newark, which litigates on behalf of low-income schoolchildren. "What [New Jersey] seems to be doing is bringing foundations and other organizations that support their particular education reform agenda. I've never seen anything like this before."

"The funding, under the U.S. Department of Education's College Access Challenge Grant, are used to improve college awareness, readiness, and attendance among low-income students. HESC said it will distribute the aid to community groups and other institutions that work directly with at-risk populations that are traditionally underserved."

"Like the Kirst-Bersin-Liu plan, the governor's proposal targets funding based on an unduplicated count of low-income students and English learners, and on the concentration of such students in a given district"

"Merging elementary and middle schools is a popular tactic in districts trying to avoid the plunge in test scores that often occurs in sixth grade. But research shows that such mergers haven't brought significant academic gains in other high-poverty settings."

"Mayor Thomas M. Menino plans to call this evening for a major overhaul of Boston's faltering vocational high school, seeking broad authority to create a job training institution that aims to help teenagers and adults climb out of poverty and into the middle class."

"With that in mind, the district offers these kids additional support. Busing is provided for the homeless students at Arlington Park and City Park. After-school programs also are offered. Donations help ensure that homeless students have school supplies, uniforms and even snacks to eat on weekends."

"Kids living in poverty can face a lot of extra challenges that hurt learning... Every public school district in the midstate saw an increase in the percent of children living in poverty 2007-2010 and some saw percents nearly double, according to a report recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau."

"Nearly half of Ohio's schoolchildren qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches this year as the economy continues to batter families struggling to get back on their feet."

"Massachusetts has one of the widest income gaps nationwide, according to Project Bread. Although the statewide average poverty rate is 11.4 percent, it varies greatly from town to town -- only 2.8 percent of Duxbury residents live at or below the poverty level, in contrast to 28.4 percent in Holyoke."