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Despite the national decline in child poverty and low-income rates in the United States since the early 1990s, the rates in California have surpassed those of the nation.

a large and growing majority of poor children live in working families, and as many of California’s poor children live in two-parent as in single-parent families.

Almost half of all California’s children are immigrants, and the large majority of these immigrants are Hispanic.

Discovery Center Museum has provided after school activities within the Rockford School District #205 for the past 10 years. The After School Achievement Program is provided to schools within the Rockford School District that are defined as Title One schools. These schools are all located in predominately low-income neighborhoods and have a high number of children on the free or reduced lunch program, and have been placed on a statewide Watch List due to their low academic test scores. This program runs from September-May each year.

safe environment, positive mentoring and lessons that foster success in school and the community at large. Our program helps children succeed, develop a positive self-image and stay in school by improving their English language, reading, math, science and creative skills. Our program also teaches social and personal life skills, team building, and exposes children to a wide variety of cultural experiences

These after school programs are partially funded by the state of Illinois. Discovery Center provides approximately $100,000 of in-kind services for the five schools in which we serve as Lead Agency. This support is in the form of donated staff salaries, a free Family Nights at the museum for participating children and their families, materials, food, student incentives, contractual costs to other participating organizations, free admission to the museum for a field trip one time each year and free family memberships to the museum to all lead agency schools (approximately 500 families).

Museum theorists such as Elaine Heumann Gurian point out that admission fees may be the single biggest obstacle preventing museums from fulfilling their missions as educational institutions that are open and accessible to the widest range of visitors from all income levels and backgrounds. But is the financial position of most art museums so precarious that the 5 percent of operating budget provided by admissions fees is indispensable to the survival of the institution? Is there a middle ground between free admission and a standard entrance fee?

Potential visitors—especially families with children—are often concerned about the financial costs associated with a museum visit, such as transportation, parking and lunch. As the costs have risen, visitors expect greater value for their admission dollars.

Many of us have visited museums and seen the words “suggested donation” or “recommended amount” next to the admission fees. The actual amount collected per visitor is often significantly lower than the suggested amount

Among all the gifts of the electronic age, one of the most paradoxical might be to illuminate something we are beginning to trade away: the particular history, visible and invisible, that can be passed down through the vessel of an old book, inscribed by the hands and the minds of readers who are gone.

Nearly 10 million adult children are caring for aging parents today,

Budget shortfalls are forcing states to come up with novel solutions for the wide disparities between poor and affluent school districts. The latest reminder was a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling in May that ordered the Legislature to increase spending for only the 31 poorest urban districts ("Court Orders New Jersey to Increase Aid to Schools," The New York Times, May 24). Not surprisingly, the decision did not please the other districts in the state. In light of the problem in New Jersey and in other states as well, perhaps it's time to consider what is known as weighted student funding. The Summer 2011 issue of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management contains a study by Helen F. Ladd and Edward B. Fiske titled "Weighted Student Funding in the Netherlands: A Model for the U.S.?" For the past quarter of a century, the Netherlands has been using a version of WSF for all its elementary schools serving children from ages 4 to 12.