For Some Reason, House Republicans Don’t Want Kids To Have Free School Lunches

Among the many other things Republicans want to achieve for this great nation, like cutting Social Security and Medicare, making Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent, and imposing work requirements for any child using a public library (look, just give them time), a proposed federal budget for 2024 lists as a top Republican priority the banning of any federal funds for universal free school meal programs.

You see, during the pandemic, the USDA’s school nutrition program made it easy for schools to provide no-cost meals to all students, not just to those whose families qualify for free or discounted meals. Schools liked being freed from the administrative costs of figuring out which kids got free meals and which kids had to pay, and it eliminated the horrible Shame Sandwich for children whose parents hadn’t refilled their lunch account, to say nothing of the weird spectacle of lunch ladies dumping perfectly good meals into the garbage to teach kids a lesson about responsibility.

Previously:

Short On Lunch Money? Alabama Elementary School Gives Kids A PBJ And A Shame Stamp

Heartlessly Ripping Food Out Of The Hands Of Hungry Children, Utah Edition

Hey, America, How About We Feed All The Kids In School? We Should Do That!

As the New Republic reports, “California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, and as of this week, Vermont” are all instituting various forms of universal free school meals, and another 21 states are considering following suit. Isn’t that wonderful? Happy kids, ready to learn because they have full tummies!

Unfortunately, Republicans just really hate the idea that anyone might get government benefits that they haven’t earned by being an agribusiness, multinational bank, or oil company, so the 2024 budget proposal from the Republican Study Committee targets a federal program that allows some school districts to provide free meals to every student.

Or as the heading in the proposal puts it, the Rs want to “Focus School Lunch Subsidies on Those Who Actually Need Them.” The idea is in a section of the budget titled “OPPORTUNITY THROUGH EMPOWERMENT AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY,” because obviously people can only be “empowered” by having nice things taken from them. Republicans love empowering lower-income folks, and if the Rs had their druthers, the poor would have to empower their fingers to the bone for every last scrap of food.

As the New Republic ‘splains, the Republican Study Committee budget would

eliminate the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP, from the School Lunch Program. Why? Because “CEP allows certain schools to provide free school lunches regardless of the individual eligibility of each student.”

The horror.

Now, the CEP isn’t even used by every school in the country anyway. It’s targeted at schools in low-income areas, and

enables schools that predominantly serve children from low-income backgrounds to offer all students free breakfast and lunch, instead of means-testing them and having to manage collecting applications on an individual basis. As with many universal-oriented programs, it is more practically efficient and, as a bonus, lifts all boats.

Well, damn, you can see why Republicans think that’s terrible. As we’ve seen with other efforts allegedly aimed at “fiscal responsibility,” like work requirements or Iowa’s recent efforts to sharply limit the foods that can be bought with SNAP (food stamp) benefits, Republicans will spare no expense if it can put the screws to people who are not well off but not absolutely destitute. Besides, they just know that some boats deserve to sink.

Never mind the research showing that children learn better when they have enough to eat, or the fact that CEP cuts down on paperwork and feeds kids with the savings. Some child somewhere might be getting an apple they don’t qualify for, and that is a fraud on the hard-working taxpayers who would much rather see their taxes go to something useful like a fighter plane that may or may not actually be able to fly in the rain.

So yeah, as Joe Biden always reminds us his dad told him, “Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” For Republicans, that doesn’t include those troublesome children who’ve left the womb.

[The Nation / Republican Study Committee]

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