Texas
Related: About this forumBill Would Ensure Free Breakfast for Texas' Poorest Students
Many students at Arnoldo Cantu Sr. Elementary School in San Juan, a Rio Grande Valley town just east of McAllen, do not have much. The Texas Education Agency estimates that 89 percent of the students in the school's district are from low-income households. But every morning, all of the schools 927 students can count on a federally subsidized breakfast.
Offering free breakfasts to all interested students in low-income areas, not just to those who qualify under federal guidelines, is a program that some state legislators are trying to expand to schools in poor neighborhoods across Texas.
Senate Bill 376, written by state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, would require schools to offer free breakfast to all students at public schools where 80 percent of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals.
The left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities estimates the bill could mean a morning meal for as many as 731,000 additional students.
More at http://www.texastribune.org/2013/04/26/bill-would-ensure-free-breakfast-states-poorest-st/ .
[font color=green]Yes, this would include wealthier children who might not get a good breakfast at home because their parents are too busy to provide a nutritional meal due to the demands of 21st century life.
Who will object? Other than a few Melissa Harris-Perry detractors who believe that it is a plot to assimilate children to socialism, I can't think of anybody else.[/font]
HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)It includes free breakfast for all children, regardless of need. They also included this during school breaks, and summer vacation. Any child can go to the nearest public school at any time of the year and get a free good breakfast.
For all the problems in this state, this is one thing they are absolutely doing RIGHT.
susanr516
(1,425 posts)It's a program called Breakfast in the Classroom. The school district covers the cost for any students not on free meals (over 2/3 of students qualify for free or reduced meals.) It started as a pilot program in the lowest income schools and worked so well that it was expanded to all students K-5.