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"Florida is all about school choice. We have 389 charter schools and a state-run virtual school. We have private-school scholarships for low-income students and private-school scholarships for students with disabilities."

"Public schools struggle to deal with the multifaceted pathologies in low-income areas, true. The magic ingredient you perceive in private schools is an engaged, motivated parent community and students who know that they have to study hard and behave or risk getting kicked out."

"Battered by deep cuts last year, groups that offer services to the disabled, the elderly, and children are wincing at what they see in Gov. Rendell's latest proposed budget."

"In impoverished neighborhoods where schools are bad, parents, voters, residents and community leaders don't make them better. Teachers do. I know of very few instances in which community leaders... brought people together to fix the schools and succeeded in doing so..."

"Families that bring in $30,000 or less will get a decrease of more than 5 percent, and the lowest-income families that pay tuition will get a decrease of more than 20 percent."

"In Arizona, proposed cuts include ending health coverage for 310,000 low-income, childless adults and 47,000 low-income children; laying off more than 2,000 employees and closing state parks, highway rest stops and motor vehicle division offices."

"Find a more-effective way to educate the 50 percent of state students who are poor enough to be eligible for free and reduced-price lunches. Low income is a proven risk factor for poor performance in school, research shows."

"By 2019, the number of uninsured would rise to 54 million, most of them low-income workers paying federal and state taxes to support health care programs for older people and the poor."

"At a recent hearing on the proposed turnaround, Pamela Olguin, attendance coordinator, said absenteeism was rooted in larger challenges: Homeless students, female students with babies who are on waiting lists for day care, guardians with disconnected phone numbers..."

"On Thursday, the board voted 5-1 in favor of maintaining the current approach by Access Missouri, designed to help those from low-income households and first-generation college students."

"Award qualifications have become more rigorous in recent years, state officials said. Schools must show that all students are making progress toward scoring proficient or better on annual state exams, and that low-income students' scores exceed state targets for two... years."

"An elementary charter school, which strives to give the children of migrant workers a future beyond the fields, is $200,000 closer to meeting a huge goal - adding a sixth, seventh and eighth grade."