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"For low-income students, programs receive about $2.30, and $2.78 for the poorest population. The low-income figures are so high in about 20 Boston schools, administrators can provide free breakfasts and lunches."

"With some nutrition experts rallying to the Obama administration's side, the battle is shaping up as a contentious and complicated fight involving lawmakers from farm states and large low-income urban areas that rely on the program, which fed some 30 million children last year with free or subsidized meals. "

"`One of the problems with poverty is your world gets so small,' said Anne Teschner, who directs the center. `But once they catch the fire, they're off.'''

"A program that helps Wausau-area low-income students prepare for college will continue thanks to another round of federal grant funding."

"The data, released by federal officials on Tuesday, also showed mixed results for Louisiana over the long term in narrowing the chasm between test scores of white and black students, as well as those from low-income vs. middle class backgrounds."

"An estimated 75 percent of the South Philadelphia children Fleisher serves live at or below the federal poverty line, and close to 50 percent speak English as a second language, Braun said."

"Newark has long been on the unhappy end of many socioeconomic indexes, particularly those concerning youth. Thirty-five percent of its children live below the poverty line, more than three times the state average; 18 percent of them live in families where neither parent has a job; 71 percent are on Medicaid or the state equivalent (15 percent have no health coverage at all)."

"Money from the program has helped put new heaters in cold houses, replace leaky roofs on senior citizens' manufactured homes and install new septic systems in low-income rural communities. In New Castle County, funds flow to about 50 nonprofits that provide emergency utility assistance, child-care subsidies for the homeless and transportation for low-income seniors"

"When Carey Sommer entered foster care in California, he left his mom, his high school and his friends. Bounced from home to home, he changed high schools nine times until the disheartened teen finally dropped out."

"Keene Elementary School Principal Jerry Olinger said the school wasn't marked as a school of promise the past few years for not meeting academic levels but because of poverty levels. Olinger said it's just a sign of harsh economic times that the number of low-income students are going up."

"With last week's White House action bringing new attention to the student debt crisis, a Wonkblog reader passes along a helpful 2003 Tax Policy Center study that sheds light on why students are struggling with the cost of college."

CEP's Jack Jennings and Diplomas Now Doug Elmer, discuss new report on high school achievement