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"Schools that receive federal Title I funding for low-income children and fail to meet adequate yearly progress standards for two years in a row face a variety of sanctions, including having to offer tutoring services, giving students a chance to leave for a better school and restructuring a school."

"Pell Grants, which provide a maximum of $5,550 and aim to help low-income families, cover just one-third of tuition on average. They are nonetheless the cornerstone of federal financial aid and enable many students to attend college who lack the means otherwise."

"The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, or RSVP, of Macomb and Elder Law of Michigan have launched an effort to help adults 60 and older with low incomes get state food benefits. The groups rolled out the program last week."

"It is increasingly clear that one of the possible casualties of the nation's rancorous debt-ceiling debate is the Pell Grant program. The grants, which have helped millions of low-income and moderate-income students attend college over the last few decades, would be reduced significantly if the most strident of Republican budget-cutters have their way."

"A similar program is in place. Under the No Child Left Behind law, districts are required to offer public school options to parents in high-poverty schools that repeatedly fail to meet federal standards. Generally speaking, few parents exercise that option."

"While employment rates have fallen sharply among the general population, they have not done so among the elderly."

"In the next two years the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system will each receive a little over a billion dollars in state aid, 10 percent less than they received in the previous two years."

"The research showed that while some high-poverty schools suspended students at unexpectedly high rates, others with strikingly similar characteristics did not. The same discipline gap was clear for prosperous, suburban schools and small, rural schools: Some were harsh and others with nearly identical qualities were not."

"A third of Michigan's seniors are considered 'economically insecure' far more than the federal poverty limits would suggest, according to a new study."

"And in the District, the 2010 D.C. Healthy Schools Act set strict standards for fat and sodium content and requires that 20 percent of produce come from the Mid-Atlantic region. In the high-poverty district, all schools must offer universal free breakfast."

"Gross said Kentucky's current early-childhood program serves 23,000 students, including low-income 4-year-olds, and 3- and 4-year-olds who have developmental delays or disabilities regardless of family income."

"The State and Local Funding Flexibility Act would let school districts spend money earmarked for impoverished children on almost any educational purpose they chose. This would inevitably lead to money going from politically powerless poor schools to those without the same needs."