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"The Obama administration last week gave Gov. Rick Scott one of the two waivers he's requested for managing Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the very poor. The waiver affects long-term care for 87,000 low-income seniors and disabled people who now receive nursing home or in-home care under Medicaid. Given that Medicaid consumes about $21 billion of the state's $74 billion budget and that long-term care accounts for about 18 percent of Medicaid's budget we all have a stake in the efficient management of the program's long-term care services for our most frail citizens."

"High-rise apartments can reinforce the sense of isolation that already threatens low-income elders. Add security guards and a management office that, like a school principal's, is located near the front door, and the greater neighborhood can seem remote. So some community advocates are trying to connect high-rise residents to their neighborhoods."

"In Texas, the achievement data about students who come from disadvantaged homes is not good. Evidence from the state's latest school finance lawsuit reveals that 47 percent of low-income ninth-graders failed at least one of their high school end-of-course exams last year - after three tries. Collectively, low-income ninth-graders failed 262,343 end-of-course exams last year - after three tries."

"The concept of an assistance program for cash-strapped seniors on fixed incomes has been advocated by Councilwoman Carmen Ramirez, who suggested the idea when the council approved utility rate increases last year."

"Dr. Ramesh Raghavan, a child mental-health services researcher at Washington University and an expert in prescription drug use among low-income children, said there are circumstances in which prescribing medication is a doctor's only recourse to help a child struggling in school.But he added that society should not force doctors into those situations, and should make available other methods to improve school environments and help families and children who are finding it difficult to thrive academically."

"Comcast launched the Digital Connectors Program in 2009 with the goal of helping young adults, particularly from low-income families, learn about computers and software, and pass the knowledge on to others in their communities. Each high school student in the program must agree to donate 57 hours of volunteer time by leading classes, tutoring students and otherwise sharing their knowledge. The classes are taught at the computer center, which opened in June 2010 with a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce."

"It's the latest sign that the District is on track to become a city where a majority of children are educated not in traditional public schools but in public charters: A California nonprofit group has proposed opening eight D.C. charter schools that would enroll more than 5,000 students by 2019. The proposal has stirred excitement among those who believe that Rocketship Education, which combines online learning and face-to-face instruction, can radically raise student achievement in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods."

"A 2010 study by the Homeless Research Institute, an arm of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, projected that the number of elderly people who are homeless would increase by 33 percent, from 44,172 in 2010 to 58,772 by 2020, and would double to 95,000 by 2050."

"Called Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-TECH, the school preps students for tech jobs at IBM with starting salaries of about $40,000. The first of its kind in America, the grade 9-14 school employs a curriculum mapped backward from workplace needs at IBM to help low-income kids beat a dreary pile of statistics that show students from poor neighborhoods especially black males face long odds for finishing high school and getting into college."

"A new study has unexpected good news for New Orleans' education system: Several high-poverty neighborhoods are sending a relatively low number of children to kindergarten who are considered developmentally vulnerable,' according to data released this week by the Orleans Public Education Network."

"The United Way of Lake County recently released a study it says proves its local programs for low-income preschoolers ready them for kindergarten. The study, conducted by the United Way of Lake County -- which serves communities across the county through its Gurnee office -- found that of a sample size in one target area, 41 percent of preschool-age children there were ready to start kindergarten last year. Officials said those numbers represent a nearly seven-fold increase from 2006."

Topic(s): Education