Representative Kadyn Wittman (D-15/Sioux Falls) again tries to get South Dakota to broaden its professed love for children beyond embryos and help feed hungry kids.
Rep. Wittman proposes House Bill 1082, which would require that schools serve meals for free to students who qualify for reduced-price meals. HB 1082 would have the state pick up the tab (full price minus what the feds pay to reduce the price) via the Department of Education’s budget.
Rep. Wittman says that covering the full cost of school meals for all South Dakota kids currently qualifying for the reduced price would cost $650,000, about 9¢ for every $1,000 the state spends, or 1% of the budget surplus South Dakota ran in FY2025.
In 2023, her first year in the Legislature, Rep. Wittman tried to get the state to pay for school meals for all kids. In 2024 and 2025, Rep. Wittman scaled back her nutritional ambitions and advocated for adding the reduced-price kids to the free-lunch list. Republicans killed all three of those healthy and pedagogically helpful bills in their first committee hearings.
Republicans believe if you keep them thin, their bound to win.
I laughed out loud while reading this because it is going nowhere except maybe to the 41st day. Which part of red state failure escapes you people?
I cried out loud after reading this. I remember the poor kids who got free lunch in Watertown in the 50’s and 60’s. When they weren’t being singled out by lunch moms they were being made to appear different by administrators. Teenagers can become psychologically sordid over these disturbances to their psyche.
We, as a group of voters don’t like hurting teenager’s feelings.
Colorado currently provides free school meals for all public‑school students statewide, regardless of family income, through the voter‑approved Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA) program.
PS … and this may be a little acrid for a lot of German Americans to embrace but
there’s such a thing as being “too” cheap. It’s not tolerable.