In Washington, D.C., a federally-funded school voucher program is finishing up its first school year. Because the program got a late start last spring, and because a high percentage of the students taking part were already attending either private or charter schools, researchers have not been able to begin assessing whether the program is meeting its most important goal: improving educational outcomes for students from failing public schools.

However, voucher proponents say that now the program is up and running, this coming September should see more of those students taking part -- a large enough number to allow for some solid research on outcomes.

In the absence of research, anecdotal evidence is standing in. The Washington Post, attempting to fill the gap in real data with a close look one family's experience with D.C.'s voucher program, recently profiled the Hammonds. Single Mom Nikia Hammond spends four hours each day on the bus taking her four children to a Baptist school, then getting herself to work, and then taking them home again. At the school, classes are small and the kids seem to be doing well, according to reporter Jay Matthews.

On the downside, the commute is brutal and eldest child Zackia Hammond, a talented runner, has had to give up her sport. I was struck by another detail: Hammond packing a breakfast of biscuits and sausages for her kids to eat while waiting for one of the two busses they take each morning.

The day after reading the Post story, I was sitting in the audience at a huge conference on the environmental causes of obesity in children and youth. Lack of time, lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and lack of opportunities for physical activity are of course key players in the obesity problem, especially among low-income children...and it occurred to me that at least for the Hammonds, the solution to poverty-related problem -- an inadequate public school -- was exacerbating others. Scarfing sausage and biscuit on a bus-stop bench is not the ideal breakfast experience. Giving up track is not something Zackia Hammond should have to do in order to get an adequate education.

When do you suppose we will get to the point where as a society we feel it is important to make sure all children have access to decent schools and decent food, along with safe settings to play and be active?