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"Joy Christian School officials did not return calls Monday. In the agreement, the private school did not admit to violating any laws but agreed to pay the following amounts: $30,000 for each of the next five years to help pay tuition for low-income students."

"The state expects most middle-class school districts to use the added funds to reduce property taxes. But the most impoverished districts will use the money for educational programs. Gov. Chris Christie said there was nothing he could do about the last-minute decisions."

"Teachers took Fields to the school ELECT program, which helps pregnant students and young mothers stay in class and graduate. In November, Fields gave birth to a son. And in June, bolstered by parent training and academic tutoring, she accepted her diploma. Now the future of ELECT has grown hazy."

"In a study of nearly a million Texas children described as an unprecedented look at discipline, researchers found that nearly identical schools suspended and expelled students at very different rates. The research showed that while some high-poverty schools suspended students at unexpectedly high rates, others with strikingly similar characteristics did not."

"Nearly a decade after reaching retirement age and qualifying for Medicare, Johnson cannot afford to give up her job. Even with the paycheck it brings, her income is only a few notches above the federal poverty level."

"Teachers at charter high schools in high-poverty neighborhoods are particularly likely to leave their schools 40 percent as compared to about 18 percent in regular inner-city high schools, reported the study, which was to be presented to LAUSD officials Tuesday morning."

"Toni's healthy appetite for school started when she received her first backpack last year for kindergarten - a necessity for the first day of school that her family, homeless and living in a Bronx shelter, could not afford. Through 'Operation Backpack' - a back-to-school donation drive - Toni was able to begin kindergarten 'like the rest of the kids,' said her mother, Venus Raymond, 38."

"'What we really need to do is go in to those districts and see if these really are choices being made,' Mr. Skiba said. 'We don't really know enough about the reasons for African-American and Latino over-representation in school discipline. We have enough data to show that it's more than just poverty and any greater misbehavior.'"

"'I won't go into a lot of details about my background, or where I came from,' he said. 'I'll just say it was a lot harder being homeless. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to live in a place where I can afford to meet my obligations.'"

"For most students, the cost of a semester's worth of bus rides will be $185. If families have more than one bus rider, they will pay $135 for each additional child. Students eligible for free and reduced lunches will be charged $100 per semester. 'We really don't know how many will pay,' Deputy Superintendent Mark Youngs said."Trustees agreed to spend about $500,000 to offset reduced prices for low-income students and families with multiple riders."

"A few days ago, the school system in the nation's capital announced the firing of 206 teachers for poor performance, using an evaluation system that most negatively impacted teachers at schools in the city's most poverty-ridden neighborhoods."

"Falls schools generally have a large and diverse student population, so each subgroup must make adequate yearly progress for the school to pass. But smaller and more homogenous schools can skate by with a few minority or low-income students scoring below expectations."