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If there was ever a time to shore up support for poor students' families, it is now.

Newspapers across the country are reporting a spike in homelessness that could have dire consequences for schools in the nation's most distressed communities. (For a sampling of recent stories on the issue, see here, here, here, here and here.)

Homeless students who worry about where they'll sleep at night, or where they'll find their next meal, have that much less energy to devote to math or reading.  Many move from school to school as their parents shuttle between shelters and temporary living arrangements with friends or family.  Climbing school mobility rates depress student achievement.

We should take a lesson from the Genesee Scholars Program in Flint, Michigan, which offers $100/month rent subsidies to low-income families with children in schools.  The results have been encouraging, to say the least.  Last month, Fox News reported that "75 percent [of participating students] met testing standards for their grade level, compared with just 35 percent of those who didn't participate, during the program's first year."

There are plans to expand the program, but growing pressures on district and municipal budgets are sure to put such efforts around the country in jeopardy.  That would be a double blow for the nation's most vulnerable children.