Micaela Demeter

I was devastated when, a year ago, the full House rejected a common sense bill to provide free breakfast and lunch to public school children when Speaker Packard cast the deciding vote to break the tie. Our unregulated voucher program siphons away millions of public tax dollars and makes them available to families who make up to 350% of the federal poverty level. Why oh WHY would we not at minimum extend this same eligibility threshold to families whose children may be food-insecure at home? The answer is that this would force the state to issue more funds to schools whose F&RL numbers would suddenly increase by a lot. It does not escape my attention that the same legislators who would vote this bill down would (and did) happily vote to expand the voucher system in our state. These priorities are utterly backwards. Feed the kids. Pass this bill, and increase to a 350% threshold.