WP: ‘It’s embarrassing to the kids’: Students who owe lunch money will get only a cold jelly sandwich, district says

[stoshuaj]

42 minutes ago, Zguy28 said:

Maybe the school could do a GoFundMe to make up the difference?

How do you know they aren't already trying?

 

In this specific instance, I don’t.

 

Having a spouse that teaches in a high school, I can speak to that one directly.

 

She and I have paid for a helluva lot more lunches than any local churches. Have they tried and been rebuffed?, that’s another question but my cynicism is going to go with “we need another building” and I’m betting if they really pushed the issue, they could.

 

Maybe it goes to the broader topic of if churches fulfilled the social/societal function as espoused, IE:  take care of poor, infirm, widows, etc, (I know that’s not a quote but you get the gist) then the gov’t wouldn’t be on the hook to bear that burden.

[TheGreatBuzz]

I know this will sound like a crazy idea but how about we teach people to not have kids if they can't afford to even ****ing feed them?!?

[The Evil Genius]

I linked a recent study that shows correlation between discipline and free school meals on the previous page.

 

There is also this.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2019 by The Evil Genius

[PeterMP]

8 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

I know this will sound like a crazy idea but how about we teach people to not have kids if they can't afford to even ****ing feed them?!?

 

Do you have away to do this?

 

Keep in mind that people can't afford to have kids that end up having kids probably aren't great decision makers.

 

(There are also people that plan on being able to have kids, but due to something like an illness or injury to themselves or the kids affecting the ability to work and/or medical expenses can't actually afford to them.  If your going to say too bad in those cases, you're essentially only saying people with hundreds of thousands of dollars already saved should have kids.  In which case, you'd better prepare for a drastic drop in the birth rate.)

[TheGreatBuzz]

5 minutes ago, PeterMP said:

Do you have away to do this?

 

Start here.

 

 

[PeterMP]

2 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

 

Start here.

 

I'm pretty sure sex ed, including birth control as just birth control, but also disease prevention, is part of any public school education today in the US.

[TheGreatBuzz]

Just now, PeterMP said:

 

I'm pretty sure sex ed, including birth control as just birth control, but also disease prevention, is part of any public school education today in the US.

 

Yes.  But our system does a crappy job of teaching financial responsibility regarding not only having children but life in general.

 

A public information campaign would probably help a lot.  

[TD_washingtonredskins]

21 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

 

Yes.  But our system does a crappy job of teaching financial responsibility regarding not only having children but life in general.

 

A public information campaign would probably help a lot.  

 

Do you really think so? 

 

1. I don't think too many people go into having kids thinking it'll be easy or inexpensive

2. Many who don't have the means to support a child and have one anyway, likely won't be listening to a PSA

3. There are plenty of cases where people had children when they had the means but suddenly are in a different financial situation

[CousinsCowgirl84]

What is the minimum income necessary to obtain a Baby making license? And what happens if 3 years down the road you loose your job and fall off the rails? Does your baby get repo’d... 17th trimester abortions?

[Kosher Ham]

Don't have children if you can't afford them.  I see both sides of this issue. Both options for solutions are available, but neither will work as they are currently presented. 

[Renegade7]

54 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

 

Yes.  But our system does a crappy job of teaching financial responsibility regarding not only having children but life in general.

 

A public information campaign would probably help a lot.  

 

No, our system does a crapy job of making things affordable.

 

Here's what kills me, that many people with kids getting sandwiches, you really think all their parents are clueless their kid doesnt have money on the account?  I bet most of them know.

 

For real, people dont even stay at the same income anymore.  Should be encouraging people to have kids, not making it miserable for trying.

Edited May 8, 2019 by Renegade7

[Kosher Ham]

What??? Encouraging potential children. That's ludicrous. 

[tshile]

I guess they need to raise taxes and make meals “free”

 

seems to be the only way we “solve” problems anymore. Let the people that can’t afford it get it for free and let the people that can afford it pay for their own and have their taxes raised for the others. 

 

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

1 hour ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

 

Yes.  But our system does a crappy job of teaching financial responsibility regarding not only having children but life in general.

 

A public information campaign would probably help a lot.  

 

Or, they could just watch Game of Thrones.

 

 

 

[NoCalMike]

It seems like this thread is morphing into justifying punishing children because of possibly irresponsible actions of their parents. 

[tshile]

1 minute ago, NoCalMike said:

It seems like this thread is morphing into justifying punishing children because of possibly irresponsible actions of their parents. 

The majority opinion seems to be give the kids quality meals for free. 

[LD0506]

7 minutes ago, tshile said:

I guess they need to raise taxes and make meals “free”

 

seems to be the only way we “solve” problems anymore. Let the people that can’t afford it get it for free and let the people that can afford it pay for their own and have their taxes raised for the others. 

 

 

 

Ugh.... you make me roll my eyes so hard it's a wonder they don't pop right outta my head..........

 

The facile Repub tax dog whistles ignore the actual problem underlying so many of the issues these days. The tax base has been gutted by so many companies and jobs moving offshore, expecting to hold onto to their native markets while donating zero dollars via jobs or taxes. The entire country has seen its groundwater dried up in this way, the tax base which used to be wide and connected has been reduced to single employers left leveraging localities. Every level of society has been monetized and mercantilized to maximize someone's profit, while leaving the actual costs to be borne by......... well, they really don't care who

 

But yanno, maybe they could choose a couple of those kids and flog 'em in the lunchroom, that would be a "pretty harmless lesson in responsibility", wouldn't it? I mean hell, they're young, they'll heal and all......................

[tshile]

Says the person earlier commenting on school administrators pay as if they’re paid too much 🤣

2 minutes ago, LD0506 said:

Ugh.... you make me roll my eyes so hard it's a wonder they don't pop right outta my head..........

 

Also, you’ve completely missed the point.

 

when you solve inequality problems by taking money from one group and giving it to the other, you don’t really solve things. The underlying issues (economic opportunity, financially responsibility, parental responsibility, etc) still remain. 

 

I mean your little tirade is cute and all it just doesn’t mean anything other than you didn’t get it. 

[The Evil Genius]

14 minutes ago, NoCalMike said:

It seems like this thread is morphing into justifying punishing children because of possibly irresponsible actions of their parents. 

 

I consider myself incredibly lucky  to never have had go a day in my life without food. I cannot imagine the stigmatism that comes with being without food..or money here in the US.

 

Sadly, the one thing that's apparent here everyday is that money cannot buy compassion.

 

 

12 minutes ago, tshile said:

The majority opinion seems to be give the kids quality meals for free. 

 

Perhaps we could redirect some of the $700 billion annually that is currently dedicated for defense spending? I also wonder what the costs to the DOE would be to cover a universal meal plan for primary and secondary education levels?

Edited May 8, 2019 by The Evil Genius

[PeterMP]

1 hour ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

 

Yes.  But our system does a crappy job of teaching financial responsibility regarding not only having children but life in general.

 

A public information campaign would probably help a lot.  

 

In general, states are doing more to teach financial literacy, and I'm certainly for that.

 

Though, to my original point, most of the people that are having kids that can't afford to feed them are people that either had bad luck (illness, disability, failed birth control, etc) and/or aren't making great decisions.  For the most part, the people that you are talking about grew up in poor households.  They know that they their parents had issues feeding them because they didn't have enough money because they were the ones that were growing up hungry.  They then end up struggling in school and in bad schools that make it harder to learn and the cycle repeats.

 

Teaching people more about financial literacy isn't going to make people have better luck, never make bad decisions, or really make them learn it.

 

Which gets me back to my original point.  Do you have any real suggestions?

Edited May 8, 2019 by PeterMP

[LadySkinsFan]

1 hour ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

 

Yes.  But our system does a crappy job of teaching financial responsibility regarding not only having children but life in general.

 

A public information campaign would probably help a lot.  

 

Then support women's and girl's bodily autonomy and stop fighting against abortion. This particular fight only really affects poor girls and women since it doesn't apply to the wealthy.

[ExoDus84]

3 hours ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

How dumb do I feel now...half the time I ask my daughter what she had for lunch it's a sunbutter and jelly sandwich. Could have had it for free!

 

Hm. I'm not even sure what "sunbutter" is. Is that a weird name for peanut butter?

 

"Sunbutter" seems like an urban dictionary term for super-heated solar mass ejection plasma, but I don't think that would taste very good.

[Busch1724]

11 minutes ago, PeterMP said:

Which gets me back to my original point.  Do you have any real suggestions?

 

Two suggestions: education and compassion. Peter, this isn't a personal attack to you. I'm just answering the question in general since it's a great discussion point. You're one of the most knowledgeable people here and capable of having a deep meaningful conversation.

 

Like most arguments and discussion points, many people want immediate fixes. It's a nuanced conversation and unfortunately as a society we don't do that. There's no quick fix. The barriers presented to individuals in poverty are hard to overcome. There's too many to mention here. It's easy to say don't spend money on this or that. Suggestion one is listening and talking to understand the actual problem. Hell, even take some time to experience the problem. We don't really want to understand one another's problems. We need that. 

 

Suggestion two: as a society we need to change how we relate to one another on a human level. The rich keep too much money, the poor are too lazy to do anything, and the middle class takes it up the you know what. How often have we all heard these refrains? We degrade segments of the population all the time. There's a systemic change that must happen. That starts with education and opportunity. Right now, we are not an educated society, nor are we trained and skilled in what the job market currently demands. That's the second part of how to you change these issues. Changes like this can take up to one generation if not more. 

 

Much more to say and could expand on this quite a bit more, but have a meeting to run to. 

[The Evil Genius]

Sunbutter is made from sunflower seeds and it is usually allergy free. 🤓

 

I only know this because I'm gluten free and sunflower butter was shelved a lot in the gluten free aisles (allergy, special foods, etc) when I changed my diet 8+ years ago. 

Edited May 8, 2019 by The Evil Genius

[Popeman38]

This is not a liberal or conservative issue. No child should be publicly humiliated for having ****ty parents. And anyone suggesting a kid being segregated to be fed a allergy free PB&J sammich at lunch isn't going to get bullied for that should put the ****ing pipe down. With the size of school budgets in this country there is ZERO excuse to not provide food to all kids.  In Loudoun County, something like 60% of my taxes pay for the school budget. There are 79,203 students in Loudoun County, with an FY19 budget of $1.544B. Tell me why a student can't eat a hot lunch?

 

And then there is bull****:

Quote

At a March 21 budget work session, supervisors agreed 5-4 to cut $4.1 million from the schools to be able to lower the tax rate. The fiscal 2019 rate is a half-cent less than what supervisors were originally working toward and 4 cents less than last year’s tax rate.

 

For fiscal 2019, Loudoun County Public Schools will receive a local tax funding transfer of $787.4 million, a 6.6 percent increase compared to fiscal 2018. LCPS had requested $1.2 billion, an 8 percent increase over last year’s proposal.

FY17 (approved) - $1,051,354,996

FY18 (approved) - $1,552,671,496

FY19 (approved) - $1,544,125,137

FY20 (requested) - $1,764,750,262

 

Why is one of the most affluent counties in the country cutting the school budget in a booming economy? Are the 1,382 data centers not pumping cash straight up the counties arse?