Lessons to Be Learned in School

Not long ago, the DISSENTING DEMOCRAT deplored the public school in Utah where poor students had school lunches taken away from them when they lacked money to pay. This was something that one might expect from a Red State, and Utah is as crimson as it comes. Imagine our surprise, and shame, to learn that this has been done in Minnesota as well. Minnesota, our Northern Star, land of the Farmer-Labor Party, Hubert Humphrey, Don Fraser, Gene McCarthy, and Paul Wellstone. Minnesota, still infused with the influence of Scandinavian social policy and German Catholic social thought, is well known as an exemplar of equality, fairness and justice.

The Legal Aid Society conducted a survey of the State’s school districts and learned that 46 of them denied hot lunches to students who lacked the money for the required co-pay. The Federally-subsidized school lunch program covers the bulk of the cost but still charges students a 40 cent per lunch co-pay. Yet, unfortunately, some cannot afford even this.

Fortunately, Governor Mark Dayton (DFL) expressed his disapproval and through his Education Commissioner put the State’s schools on notice: it is the policy of the State that no child will be denied a hot lunch for lack of funds.

No child in America should ever have to go hungry at school.

“Free Lunch” Congressman Jack Kingston

Tea Party darling says that School Kids who can’t afford to buy a lunch should be required to work for their lunches — cleaning up after or serving their fellow students. Jack says they should learn that there ain’t no free lunch.

It may astound one to learn that there are “Free Lunches” for Congress-critter Jack who billed the U.S. taxpayer for $ 4,200 to pay for the lunches he had while “working” as a Congress-critter. What he took from the Treasury could have paid for 2000 school lunches!

Jack is a hungry boy. It turns out that in addition to spounging off the Taxpayers, Jack has wolfed down another  $ 4,300 for lunches from Corporate contributors over the same time period. Growing boys need a lot of food and $ 9000 in lunches is more than many families spend on food in a year.

Another Indicator That Poverty Is Up

NEWS ITEM from MN Public Radio (excerpt):

More Minnesota families are feeling the pinch of a tough economy where it hurts more than many parents would like to admit — their children’s lunch money.

New data from the state education department shows statewide enrollment in Minnesota schools stayed mostly flat from last year to this year, but there was an 8.5 percent increase in the number of students on free and reduced lunch.

As a result, more than one in three students receives help from the federally supported program, the most widely-used measure of poverty in schools.

Officials say some of that increase is likely the result of schools doing a better job of signing up eligible students. But it’s clear that the down economy is contributing to more poverty.

The sharp increase doesn’t surprise Mark Stevenson of Blaine. He’s one of those parents who signed his children up for free and reduced lunch last year — the first time he’s had to do so.

“We were both there [at school], talking to teachers and my ex-wife said ‘my daughters are eligible for free and reduced lunch, how do I get that paperwork?'” Stevenson recalled. “She was being very vocal about it and I was just standing there withering, saying ‘oh my gosh, I feel really self-conscious here.'”

Stevenson’s divorce and loss of a second income forced him to seek assistance. It was especially humbling, considering both Stevenson and his ex-wife are teachers who have seen poverty in schools for years.

“I didn’t think that kids who are in free and reduced lunch had parents who had an established home and professional credentials and made a combined income of six figures,” he said. “How would anyone who came from that situation end up needing free and reduced lunch?”

See, http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/03/11/free-reduced-lunch-use-increase/

Guess what else gets cut in the ‘Reckpublican-Blue Dog Budget? School lunches join Food Stamps, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Legal Services, Housing Assistance (Section 8), Disability Aid, Special Education and so forth. Kids won’t need no stinkin’ school-lunches because they will go to work at age 11 like the kids in Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, China do. The only “welfare” to be left in the budget will be CORPORATE WELFARE.