Ohio

"There's an increasingly common ritual at suburban schools on Fridays. It has nothing to do with football games or pep rallies. Instead, more and more kids are picking up bags of food to make sure they don't go hungry over the weekend."

"This school year, for the first time, EdChoice is helping a different kind of student, those who live in low-income homes but who don't attend or live near poorly performing public schools. This expanded EdChoice program will give vouchers to students whose family income is at or below twice the 2012 federal poverty line, or $46,100 for a family of four."

"Up to 2,000 Ohio kindergartners from low-income families will be able to use state vouchers for private-school tuition this fall, thanks to a provision in the state budget approved last month."

"A lack of available beds for senior citizens in the Kentucky area neighboring Ohio is increasingly forcing many to move north of the Ohio river, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. The newspaper's investigation showed that Ohio taxpayers shell out more than $6 million per year for the Kentucky patients covered by Medicaid. Sixty percent of the cost is paid using federal dollars and the rest is picked up by the state."

"The report by the New America Foundation, a research group based in Washington, D.C., analyzed U.S. Education Department data showing the net price' the amount students pay after grants and scholarships have been exhausted for low-income students at thousands of colleges nationwide for the 2010-11 school year."

"Like much of the nation, Ohio has slashed enrollment and funding in public preschool for children in low-income families, according to a report released today. State aid for preschool dropped by more than half a billion dollars in the 2011-2012 school year, the largest one-year drop ever, found the study by the National Institute for Early Education Research which has tracked state pre-kindergarten programs since 2002."