In spite of a looming $5.3 million deficit, the Juneau School Board thinks it’s a good idea to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to give out free breakfasts to all students, regardless of their families’ financial needs.
Primarily funded through state education funds, the free meals are estimated to cost about $230,000 in the coming academic year.
According to the Juneau Independent the school board voted to include the meal package in its $81.5 million budget for next year, which is more than the district can afford. To make up for the gap, the school board is looking to empty its reserve funds.
To balance its proposed budget without cutting anything or using reserve funds, the district would need state lawmakers to add another $864 to what Alaska spends per child on education – also known as the BSA.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
Juneau first started giving out universal free breakfasts using Covid-era federal funding, which has since ended. To continue the program, it wants the state to step in and foot the bill for every student, regardless of need.
Conservatives have long-maintained that universal free meal programs discourage parents from preparing meals for their children, while expanding social welfare dependency and creating entitlement expectations for families that don’t need help.
Nevertheless, free school meals have become a priority for many on the political left who claim these programs are part of the government educational system’s larger mission to provide a whole host of goods and services, including healthcare, social-emotional counseling, afterschool care for working parents, swimming classes, myriad non-instructional activities and much more.
TAKING ACTION
— The final decision on the size of the Juneau School District budget will include input by the Juneau Assembly, which must approve all local contributions to whatever state and federal funding the district receives. To contact assemblymembers, send an email to BoroughAssembly@juneau.gov.
9 Comments
From cradle to grave. And then parents complain about the schools raising their children to be good communist. Parents have become lazy by allowing this type of surrender of their parental responsibilities to the socialistic government. Our country is doomed.
Yup. The Long March through the institutions. But the institutions are collapsing, just like communism/socialism is destined to do. Destiny has a way with reality.
There is a bill in the Alaska Legislature to do exactly what the Juneau School District is doing–free food for everyone! It’s HB12. “Free” food for all the students we cannot even teach how to read. Feed the body, not the mind. Parents will love it–they won’t have to fix breakfast and lunch for their kids. What’s next, dormitories so kids can just live at school? The Education Industry sees that there will be far fewer students in the future so it is enlarging its mission from education to health care, food service, mental health services, daycare, etc. Why? Because the districts can control the children from the earliest age and the districts can add even more extra-educational employees. Remember, bureaucracies never ever diminish. Their sole mission is to grow and grow so bureaucrats can supervise more employees and then those supervisors can move up on the salary ladder. Happens in every bureaucracy, even the Department of War.
Wasn’t there a story a few years ago that some kids at one of the schools in Juneau wound up with floor cleaner in their milk? Whatever happened there? When I was a kid we had warnings about people finding sharp objects and poison in Halloween candy, but people still trust strangers to feed their children every day.
Everyone needs to watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rEM9usUyik. Our districts are bankrupt and on life support. When will everyone wake up and realize this? You don’t keep throwing money at a broken system.
School meals are so gross and processed. Letting kids eat them twice a day isn’t going to help them focus and learn.
Food is largely overrated. It mostly fills the stomach and provides little nutrition. Better to ingest something that will last a life time: JESUS! Got Jesus, got health.
Hey rauscher, look at all these helpless children right in your backyard! Parents have surrendered them to you and the system!!! A goldmine for peds!!!! I’m sure Kawasaki is paying close attention as well!
It’d be interesting to see if a more targeted approach could balance both priorities better. Slope