Increasing numbers of Illinois schoolchildren are from low-income families

From The Chicago Tribune: As a group, Illinois' public school children are fewer in number, increasingly poor, more diverse and more likely than in recent years to spend the entire school year at the same building, according to new data. Nearly half of the state's 2.1 million public school children came from families who were considered low-income during the last school year, as the recession nudged more families toward poverty. About 45.4 percent qualified for a free or discounted school meal, the highest rate in decades.