proud2BlibKansan and free lunch..

[CC27]

proud2BlibKansan Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Sat Nov-05-11 11:01 AM
Original message
Free lunch question.
   
Edited on Sat Nov-05-11 11:26 AM by proud2BlibKansan
A tea party rep here in my area is claiming there are districts in Kansas that have 100% of their students qualifying for free lunch. We easily proved him wrong by actually checking with the state DOE.

This is not the first time I have seen this claim. It appears to be a new right wing talking point. On one right wing blog recently I even saw the claim that teachers are being paid incentives for every free lunch application they turn in.

This leads to my question: Are any teachers here aware of any school district where 100% of the children are eligible for free lunch? Not individual schools - an ENTIRE district. That's the claim being made.

I'm not talking about the program where if a certain percent of the kids are eligible in a school, ALL kids eat free. (Is that program even still available? In my district it has been discontinued.) I mean every single chid in the district lives below the poverty level and qualifies for free meals at school. Is that a reality anywhere in the USA?

Thanks.


oops on edit - the video where the tea partier makes this claim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6MvYMyk1Fs

God help us.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=219x34799

[JohnnyReb]

School principal making over a 100 thou a year had her kids on the "free lunch" program......and yes, one look and you could tell she was an Obama voter.

[MrsSmith]

http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bystate/Rankings.aspx?state=KS&loct=5&by=v&order=a&ind=1277&dtm=2761&tf=14

I haven't found district by district info yet, but there are counties in Kansas where over 65% of kids qualify for free or reduced lunches.  I can see how it could be possible for there to be districts that are 100% in those counties...the little schools the state hasn't managed to close yet, perhaps.  (You know the kind...the kids are all poor, work hard at home, and end up with twice the education they'd have gotten in the bigger schools.)

[DumbAss Tanker]

I can see how such an idea might get started, since the school districts here (One state over) have everyone complete the paperwork whether they want to or not, even parents who know they don't qualify and want it anyway, as well as those who would qualify but do not see themselves as needing or wanting it.

[BattleHymn]

http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bystate/Rankings.aspx?state=KS&loct=5&by=v&order=a&ind=1277&dtm=2761&tf=14

I haven't found district by district info yet, but there are counties in Kansas where over 65% of kids qualify for free or reduced lunches.  I can see how it could be possible for there to be districts that are 100% in those counties...the little schools the state hasn't managed to close yet, perhaps.  (You know the kind...the kids are all poor, work hard at home, and end up with twice the education they'd have gotten in the bigger schools.)

United Way always trots out the percentage of "poor children on free lunches" when they have their annual skim-off-the-top-of-your-donations drive every year here.  The figure they gave this year was 67%.  There is no way that 67% of the children in this area are legitimately in need of a free lunch.


USDA income guidelines for who qualifies for free lunch:
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/notices/iegs/iegs.htm

Excerpt from http://educationnext.org/fraud-in-the-lunchroom/: 

State governments dole out benefits according to free and reduced-price lunch percentages, too. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, for instance, allocates $2,250 to schools for each low-income child enrolled in kindergarten through 3rd grade. The program gauges poverty using NSLP participation.
Because of the financial benefits, local school districts have a clear incentive to register as many students in NSLP as possible. Some districts encourage parents to fill out applications, even if they are not sure they qualify. One district in Chillicothe, Missouri, offered parents a $10 Wal-Mart gift card for turning in an application. “Even if you choose to pay for your child’s lunches and or breakfasts, each qualified application earns $1,025 per child of state money for our school district,” said Assistant Superintendent Wade Schroeder.

My parents made many friends through the years in our local school district.  They know how the system works, and so do the teachers.  There was and I am sure, still is, an immense amount of pressure to apply for free or reduced lunches. 

Proud2beStupid is just worried that somebody might be cutting into her district's trough.

[Tucker]

50 years of democrat party rule has come to this:

http://thenewamerican.com/culture/education/8683-all-detroit-public-school-students-to-get-free-breakfast-lunch-snacks

(non AP)

Starting this year, all children in Detroit’s public schools, from kindergarten through 12th grade, will receive free breakfast, lunch, and snacks, the school system has announced.

Nearly 100,000 schoolchildren will receive the free meals regardless of income, thanks to a program administered by the federal Department of Agriculture. Detroit schools are participating, they say, to eliminate the stigma associated with coming from a low-income household that requires such assistance.

And in Flint, MI., the home of Michael Moore and MI second cesspool city:


http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2011/09/flint_among_first_to_get_free.html

FLINT, Michigan — No such thing as a free lunch?

Starting this week, there will be free lunches for all Flint School District students.

The district is one of the first in the nation to sign on to a new program that will provide all students, regardless of economic status, with two free meals and a snack each school day.

[Evil_Conservative]

United Way always trots out the percentage of "poor children on free lunches" when they have their annual skim-off-the-top-of-your-donations drive every year here.  The figure they gave this year was 67%.  There is no way that 67% of the children in this area are legitimately in need of a free lunch.


USDA income guidelines for who qualifies for free lunch:
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/notices/iegs/iegs.htm

Excerpt from http://educationnext.org/fraud-in-the-lunchroom/:  

State governments dole out benefits according to free and reduced-price lunch percentages, too. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, for instance, allocates $2,250 to schools for each low-income child enrolled in kindergarten through 3rd grade. The program gauges poverty using NSLP participation.
Because of the financial benefits, local school districts have a clear incentive to register as many students in NSLP as possible. Some districts encourage parents to fill out applications, even if they are not sure they qualify. One district in Chillicothe, Missouri, offered parents a $10 Wal-Mart gift card for turning in an application. “Even if you choose to pay for your child’s lunches and or breakfasts, each qualified application earns $1,025 per child of state money for our school district,” said Assistant Superintendent Wade Schroeder.

My parents made many friends through the years in our local school district.  They know how the system works, and so do the teachers.  There was and I am sure, still is, an immense amount of pressure to apply for free or reduced lunches.  

Proud2beStupid is just worried that somebody might be cutting into her district's trough.

My daughter's first daycare she ever attended tried to make me fill out the WIC application there.  I think it was WIC?  It was paperwork that would get formula and baby foods for "free" to the children in the daycare.  I told her I wasn't filling out the paperwork because we didn't need the help.  Her response was kind of the same as what you have in bold.  Even if we didn't qualify, it would get more "free" food for the other children enrolled.  

[Carl]

Growing up here would have easily qualified for the free lunch program.
Parents instead went without something and found a way to pay for them.

Thank God for what they taught me about life and how you live it.

[BattleHymn]

My daughter's first daycare she ever attended tried to make me fill out the WIC application there.  I think it was WIC?  It was paperwork that would get formula and baby foods for "free" to the children in the daycare.  I told her I wasn't filling out the paperwork because we didn't need the help.  Her response was kind of the same as what you have in bold.  Even if we didn't qualify, it would get more "free" food for the other children enrolled.  

So, did you fill it out?  I wouldn't have.  I also would have given them a piece of my mind on it, too.

[Evil_Conservative]

So, did you fill it out?  I wouldn't have.  I also would have given them a piece of my mind on it, too.

Absolutely not.

[BlueStateSaint]

Absolutely not.

I suppose that that's one of the advantages of having your child in a Christian daycare--the owner would never do that.

[Karin]

On a related note, Boortz was talking about phony baloney statistics the govt puts out.  How do you measure how many hungry children you have in your nation?  Well, the US sent out a survey which asked the following question.  "In the past year, has your child ever complained of being hungry?"     If the answer was yes, they were included as a starving child.  They didn't ask the follow-up question, "Did you have anything to give him?" 

Any given teenage boy is going to complain about being hungry on the hour.  These are the same dumbasses who count living in a mobile home as "homeless." 

[NHSparky]

When did people abdicate their responsibility and leave it up to the schools?  Even here, they give out "free" breakfast.  During the summer they have FREE (under 18) breakfasts and lunches.

When did this shit start happening???

[Erasmus]

United Way always trots out the percentage of "poor children on free lunches" when they have their annual skim-off-the-top-of-your-donations drive every year here.  The figure they gave this year was 67%.  There is no way that 67% of the children in this area are legitimately in need of a free lunch.

They need free lunch so their parents can continue to have cell phone service and post at DU.

[NHSparky]

United Way always trots out the percentage of "poor children on free lunches" when they have their annual skim-off-the-top-of-your-donations drive every year here.  The figure they gave this year was 67%.  There is no way that 67% of the children in this area are legitimately in need of a free lunch.

All the more reason NOT to donate to United Way--and they're the big "company charity" around here.  I stopped donating to Red Cross and United Way after the whole 9/11 fundraising fiasco.

[Erasmus]

All the more reason NOT to donate to United Way--and they're the big "company charity" around here.  I stopped donating to Red Cross and United Way after the whole 9/11 fundraising fiasco.

Yep, we're guilted into giving to the UW here.  It's like people don't have other charities they'd rather support.

[NHSparky]

Yep, we're guilted into giving to the UW here.  It's like people don't have other charities they'd rather support.

That's pretty much how I feel about it--why should I give to someone who then decides who to give to, after taking their percentage, of course?

[whiffleball]

Checking DeKalb County, GA 69.75 of the district receives free or reduced meals.  Two schools weigh in at 100%.  Atlanta City Schools is 76.41 with 2 at 100%.  Overall for the state 57.49.

Some of those districts were well into the 90 percentile rates with the charter schools usually pulling down the averages.   The possibility that there are districts hitting 100 is high.

[JohnnyReb]

Checking DeKalb County, GA 69.75 of the district receives free or reduced meals.  Two schools weigh in at 100%.  Atlanta City Schools is 76.41 with 2 at 100%.  Overall for the state 57.49.

Some of those districts were well into the 90 percentile rates with the charter schools usually pulling down the averages.   The possibility that there are districts hitting 100 is high.

Atlanta I think is the city where even the principals kids were getting free lunches.

Fire the beotch....ooops, sorry, wrong color for firing.

[BattleHymn]

All the more reason NOT to donate to United Way--and they're the big "company charity" around here.  I stopped donating to Red Cross and United Way after the whole 9/11 fundraising fiasco.

I've never given a single red dime to United Way.  I've told their reps that, I've told the people at my place of employment that as well.  I donate money directly to the charities of my choice, without having any cut taken by some middleman. 

No one at UW has ever been able to explain to me why in this day and age of online electronic transfers, Paypal, E-Give-USA, and a whole slew of others, why UW even exists.  Ask that one, and you'll usually get the whole "it's easy and convenient, and you don't have to think about it". 

Yeah, right.   Budget like a primitive, and end up with a primitive's finances.