One thing's for sure — education paves the road out of poverty and homelessness. But for a surging number of kids, homelessness interferes with attaining a good education. This fall, Congress will decide how much money to spend educating homeless kids. We need to ring the bell of our lawmakers, letting them know homeless students count.

The McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth Act provides the framework but it's been woefully underfunded, $65 million for FY10, with a short burst of stimulus funds that's ending unless Congress reconsiders when they come back from their summer recess.

We suggest a funding level of $140 million.