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"In addition to attending overcrowded public schools, they live in blighted environments plagued by abject poverty, institutional racism, low educational attainment levels, high gang activity and drug addiction, along with rampant police abuse."

"The expansion at the Summer Learning Initiative reflects a stepped-up effort by the city and the school department to close the `academic and opportunity' gaps that often stymie poor students in urban areas."

"Poor children hoping to use tuition vouchers for private school won't get them in time for next school year. Meanwhile, more middle-income children could be eligible for them in 2015, if the House and Senate approve."

"This fall's class of 30 teachers will be Teach for America's first entry into South Carolina. For 20 years, the group has sent recent college graduates to teach in rural, high-poverty areas across the country."

"On the other hand, Houston's four-year graduation rate is basically the same as Chicago's, depending on who's crunching the numbers. And 87 percent of Chicago's pupils are classified as 'low income,' compared with 79 percent of pupils in Houston...."

"McCrory seems to believe that teachers contribute no more to our society or our future than a widget-maker. He argues the state should charge teachers higher health insurance premiums, cutting into a starting salary that is $8,000 above the poverty line for a family..."

"S.B. 1 also would focus on failing school districts and the primarily low-income families who live in them. It would provide Opportunity Scholarships (vouchers) so that low-income children in failing districts could attend better schools."

"About 28 classrooms of the young students will not feel the tuition difference because they are fully financed by federal grant money aimed at helping low-income families, Mendoza said. Another 85 classrooms will see the changes."

"The tale outlined outside court by the defendant's supporters had a heartbreaking story line --...a homeless mother charged with felony theft for the crime of sending him to a better school than the one available to her, the inequalities that define America's schools."

"A homeless single mother who lives in her van pleaded not guilty yesterday to stealing nearly $16,000 worth of education for her son by enrolling the kindergartner in her baby sitter's school district."

"Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, brought the bill, SB485, before the House Education subcommittee Wednesday afternoon, describing it as a means to assure that children from low-income families have 'the opportunity to attend a school that meets their own needs.'"

"A Republican-backed school voucher program for low-income students in the state's four largest counties, including Hamilton, is dead for the year."