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"As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Texas was allocated $6.4 billion in federal funds in three areas - money for special education, schools with high percentages of poor students and stabilization funds."

"About 36 percent of students at Brewster Pierce qualify for the federal free and reduced lunch program. Despite a significant poverty rate, the school's performance is solid, especially when the scores for students who have been at the school for at least three years are teased out..."

"The problem is that getting first generation college students into higher education is difficult. Keeping them there through graduation or completion of their technical studies also is a challenge. Many come from low-income families."

"At LAUSD, the nation's second largest school system that grapples with a raft of low-achieving inner-city schools, conversions are a cause for dismay some of the district's star schools mostly located in a swath of affluent suburbs are breaking away."

"This de-facto segregation - and widening achievement gaps between white and minority students - has some advocates calling education the civil rights issue of the generation."

"Every school in the district has students who are homeless --the district total is more than 150 youth, about 6 percent of the district's 2,600 students."

"Another issue is summer loss, when low-income children with few opportunities for summer learning fall behind. 'When children are with us, we can make a difference with them,' said Cynthia Sellinger, Vance Elementary School principal. 'But we need them with us.'""

"His proposal adds $1.7 billion to revenues by eliminating tax breaks for seniors and low-income workers and getting rid of many other income tax deductions... Personal deductions would be phased out for individuals making at least $75,000 or couples making at least $150,000."

"Senate Bill 1 would give low-income and working families the chance to send their kids to a higher-performing public, public charter or private school. It's an opportunity these students desperately need and deserve."

"Anyone who has studied poverty knows that it is a complex issue with a plethora of causes and effects at play. Unfortunately, the impact of poverty is often most pronounced in the lives of our nation's youth."

"...[I]ncome limits are necessary for transit agencies to combat shrinking revenues while still providing free service to the neediest. Of the 435,000 seniors currently enrolled in the free-rides program, about 44 percent are estimated to be low-income..."

Interview with AARP Foundation President, Jo Ann Jenkins