Georgia Congressman Proposes That Poor Kids Sweep Schools For Their Lunch

Georgia Congressman Proposes That Poor Kids Sweep Schools For Their Lunch

By Josh Israel on December 19, 2013 at 8:58 am

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), who from 2011 to 2012 chaired the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for school nutrition programs, told party activists that kids receiving free breakfast and lunch should either be asked to pay for part of their meals or earn them by sweeping the floor. The 11-term Congressman, who is seeking his party’s nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat next year, said Saturday that he had suggested the idea to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

According to the Huffington Post, Kingston told the Jackson County Republican Party that the program that provides children from struggling families with free lunch and breakfast is error-riddled. He then opined that schools should not teach any of the kids, eligible or not, that there is such thing as a “free lunch” in America:

KINGSTON: On the Agriculture Committee, we have jurisdiction over the school lunch. [The] school lunch program has a 16 percent error rate. [The] school lunch program is very expensive. Of course, it looks good compared to the school breakfast program that has a 25 percent error rate. But one of the things I’m talking to the Secretary of Agriculture about: why don’t you have the kids pay a dime, pay a nickle, to instill in them that there is, in fact, no such thing as a free lunch. Or maybe sweep the floor in the cafeteria. And yes, I understand that that would be an administrative problem and I understand that it would probably lose you money — but think what we’d gain as a society in getting the myth out of their head that there is such thing as a free lunch.

Watch the video

Read more:

http://thinkprogress.org/education/2013/12/19/3085271/jack-kingston-free-lunch/

GOP Congressman Thinks Poor Kids Should Work for 'Free' School Lunch

By Willy Blackmore | Takepart.com December 19, 2013 2:16 PM

According to data from the 2012 Census, Georgia has the sixth-highest child poverty rate in the country. Yet rather than discussing how to help the more than 1 in 4 children living under the poverty line in the state, Rep. Jack Kingston, a candidate in the Republican primary to replace retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss, is more concerned with cutting free lunch programs in public schools.

Speaking at a meeting of the Jackson County Republican Party, Kingston told the audience, “But one of the things I’ve talked to the secretary of agriculture about: Why don’t you have the kids pay a dime, pay a nickel, to instill in them that there is, in fact, no such thing as a free lunch?”

The congressman is so concerned that students grasp the concepts of free-market economics, à la Milton Friedman, that he would take the situation a step further, asking kids to work for a meal—never mind that information retention plummets when students are underfed.

Read more:

http://news.yahoo.com/gop-congressman-thinks-poor-kids-39-free-39-191619931.html

Georgia Congressman: Kids Who Get Subsidized School Lunches Should Be Forced To Work

Doug Mataconis · Thursday, December 19, 2013

Congressman Jack Kingston, who is currently running for the GOP Nomination to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Saxby Chambliss, suggests that students receiving free or subsidized school lunches should be required to perform janitorial work in the school in exchange for the benefit they receive:

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) wants kids to learn early in life that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. To make sure they absorb that lesson, he’s proposing that low-income children do some manual labor in exchange for their subsidized meals.

On Saturday, Kingston, who is vying to be his party’s nominee in Georgia’s Senate race next year, spoke at a meeting of the Jackson County Republican Party about thefederal school lunch program.

Under that program, children from families with incomes at or below 130 percent of the poverty line are eligible for free meals. Students from families with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level can receive lunches at reduced prices.

~Snipped~

Kingston isn’t the first politician with ties to Georgia to suggest that poor kids should be put to work in the schools as some kind of Apprentice Janitor Corps. As you may recall, back near the end of 2011 Newt Gingrich who was then, quite improbably, surging to the top of the 2012 GOP Presidential field (for at least of a few weeks), said that poor students should be put to work as janitors in public schools to apparently teach them the value of a dollar. As I noted at the time, the idea of getting teenagers at least, especially ones in poor communities, to have the opportunity to learn the value of hard work and other values that they may not be exposed to at home for various reasons is not necessarily a bad idea. However, going from that idea to the idea of turning kids into school janitors or something like that would seem to serve no useful purpose at all, except perhaps saving the school districts money since they wouldn’t need to hire so many janitors.

Read more:

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/georgia-congressman-kids-who-get-subsidized-school-lunches-should-be-forced-to-work/

Would this teach poor kids the value of hard work or kill their self-esteem and make them feel like second-class citizens? It seems like it would punish the kids who come from poor families and subject them to ridicule from the kids who don't have to sweep the floors. It would send the message that the poor kids have to work for their lunch while it's okay for the rich kids to receive hand outs from their parents and not have to work for their lunch.

Moving from Developing Stories to Closed.