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usatoday.com — Barack Obama probably cannot fix every leaky roof and busted boiler in the nation's schools. But educators say his sweeping school modernization program — if he spends enough — could jump-start student achievement. More kids than ever are crammed into aging, run-down schools that need an estimated $255 billion in repairs, renovations or construction. While the president-elect is likely to ask Congress for only a fraction of that, education experts say it still could make a big difference.

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— It's no easy task to recruit people with proclivities for science into schools — and to keep them long enough to nurture a talent for teaching. But over the next decade, schools will need 200,000 or more new teachers in science and math, according to estimates by such groups as the Business-Higher Education Forum in Washington. Already, many districts face shortages: In at least 10 states, fewer than 6 out of 10 middle-school science teachers were certified when the Council of Chief School Officers compiled a report last year. The United States is not only facing a dearth of future homegrown scientists and engineers, but increasingly, everyday citizens need science literacy.

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cnn.com — The sagging economy is taking a bite out of federal school-meal subsidies as more students take advantage of free or low-price breakfasts and lunches, nutritionists say in a report. The School Nutrition Association surveyed more than 130 school nutrition directors from 38 states to produce its report, "Saved by the Lunch Bell: As Economy Sinks, School Nutrition Program Participation Rises." The nonprofit organization said that about 425,000 more students are participating in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program in 2008-09 than in the previous school year. That represents an average increase of 2.5 percent from 2007-08, the report says. Many of the school district employees who monitor the food programs complain that the federal subsidies fall far short of the rising costs.

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mcclatchydc.com — School nurse Carolyn Duff told a Senate committee that she sees signs of the financial downturn every day in the kids she treats. "More and more of the working poor are entering the ranks of unemployed, impoverished and homeless families," Duff testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee. Duff and other child-health experts said the recession is accelerating a disturbing trend in which more kids have early diabetes, hypertension and other health problems previously confined to adults.

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news.bbc.co.uk — The brains of children from low-income families process information differently to those of their wealthier counterparts, US research suggests. Normal nine and 10-year-olds from rich and poor backgrounds had differing electrical activity in a part of the brain linked to problem solving. The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience study was described as a "wake-up call" about the impact of deprivation.

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washingtonpost.com — For more than a decade, billions in federal and state dollars were targeted to whittle classes so that teachers can devote more time and attention to each student, crafting lessons to fit the needs of struggling students, high-achievers and everyone in between. Nationwide, the average number of students in elementary classes dropped from 29 in 1961 to 24 in 1996. In 2004, the average elementary class nationwide had 20 children, with about 25 in the average secondary class. But this smaller-is-better trend is in jeopardy. A survey of more than 800 districts released last month found that 36 percent have moved to larger classes in response to the economic downturn. Many are also putting off maintenance, buying fewer textbooks and lowering thermostats.

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iht.com — An annual report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education found that college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants than students from more affluent families. "If we go on this way for another 25 years, we won't have an affordable system of higher education," said Patrick Callan, president of the center. "When we come out of the recession," Callan added, "we're really going to be in jeopardy, because the educational gap between our work force and the rest of the world will make it very hard to be competitive."

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csmonitor.com — School districts across the United States are tightening their belts in anticipation of a meager fiscal diet that could carry into 2011. As state and local revenue declines, officials are looking for the trims least likely to harm the quality of education. Although some districts have rainy-day funds to tap, concern is growing that students, particularly those who are struggling to learn or who are homeless, are going to feel the pinch. Just over a third of superintendents in a recent national survey said they've already increased the size of classes because of the downturn. Thirty percent of superintendents are considering layoffs. Of the two-thirds who said their districts are inadequately funded, 83 percent think it's detrimental to their ability to close achievement gaps for minority groups.

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nytimes.com — Schools in Alabama are getting hit hard by falling tax receipts, an early warning of the vulnerability of poor states during the economic downturn. School districts there are borrowing heavily or using savings to meet payrolls, state officials said, and superintendents are being warned not to fix leaky roofs or make other repairs. The money crisis in Alabama schools is a small but acute part of the dismal national picture for school financing, with districts across the country hurt by a drop in local sales and property tax receipts, the drying up of credit and the decline in state revenues.

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ipsnews.net — The threat by the George W. Bush administration last week to withdraw all economic and military support from the Iraqi government if it does not accept the U.S.-Iraq status of forces agreement has raised the stakes in the political-diplomatic struggle over the issue. However, most Iraqi politicians are now so averse to any formal legitimization of the U.S. military presence — and particularly of extraterritorial legal rights over U.S. troops in the country — that even that threat is unlikely to save the pact.

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