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"The Ascension Parish Public School System is trying to shrink the learning gap at its high-poverty schools with a newly created Office of Turnaround and Instruction."

"'For too long, the funding needs of our teachers, aging schools and students in low-income areas have been neglected,' Balcorta said in a statement. 'Hispanics have become the first in our nation to drop out and the last to head to college.'"

"It will essentially make it acceptable to deny access to higher education for low- income students, and since tuition assistance is not rising with the cost of tuition, any increase at this point would be irrational or very difficult to repay."

"South Burlington standardized test scores on the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) are relatively strong, but there's still an achievement gap between low-income and higher-income students. Many school systems grapple with this."

"The program at Moore Community House in Back Bay Biloxi is the only Early Head Start program on the Coast, White said. Early Head Start is a child development program that accepts children in low-income families from 8 weeks up to 3 years old."

"Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law billions of dollars in budget cuts Thursday that will mean fewer government services, particularly for the old, the poor and the sick."

"The fundamental problem in urban districts is that there isn't enough money available to overcome the overwhelming challenge of poverty. Students from low-income homes with poor nutrition and little if any family support arrive in school every day ill-prepared to learn."

"So he has a question to answer, a choice that most 18-year-olds have no idea how to make and that a vast majority of parents are ill-equipped to consider as well: just how much sacrifice should teenagers (and often their parents) make to attend a high-quality liberal arts college, when a perfectly good community college is just up the road?"

"Pino acknowledges that his school has only one child with an allergy issue and serves a student body that is 98 percent low income. 'But even in the more affluent schools, parents are in a hurry to get to work and there isn't always time to make breakfast,' he said."

""Our goal is that Faison Primary becomes our first 90-90-90 school -- 90 percent minority, 90 percent poverty and 90 percent [proficient or advanced] achievement," Ms. French said [district chief of school performance]."

"That formula gives additional money for teaching students who come from families below the poverty line, who are learning English, or who have physical or learning disabilities."

"But, says Norma Johnson, program specialist for breakfast in the classroom in the San Diego schools, with economic instability and the twin problems of obesity and hunger as well as a population of homeless children, 'we have a lot of obligation.'"