TALLAHASSEE — Time is running out for Florida to opt into a new federal program that would provide $248 million to help feed 2 million children next summer who might otherwise go hungry.
But it isn’t likely to happen as the state agency best equipped to run the program said it wouldn’t be pursuing the funding for it.
“We anticipate that our state’s full approach to serving children will continue to be successful this year without any additional federal programs that inherently always come with some federal strings attached,” Mallory McManus, spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families, wrote in an email 30 minutes after this story went online.
The Summer EBT Program was approved by Congress last December. It would provide healthy meals while school is out to children who receive free or reduced-cost lunches during the school year. So far, 25 states, territories and tribes have signed on.
It’s administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps.
After discussions between state officials and childhood hunger advocates, Florida has not designated a lead agency to administer the program. The deadline to apply is January 1.
Sky Beard, Florida director of No Kid Hungry, an advocate for programs to help end child hunger, called DCF’s decision “incredibly disappointing.”
More than three-quarters of Floridians reported it was harder to buy food this year than last, she said, and summer is the hungriest time of the year when children lose access to consistent and nutritious food provided by their schools. That money would have helped them buy groceries and other essentials at local stores across the state, she said.
“Not only does this hurt nearly 2 million children in our state but it also disregards the economic boost this would have provided many hardworking families,” said Beard, who added that her organization had been in conversations with House and Senate leaders about the program.
The state would have to provide a 50% match for administrative costs to participate, which comes out to about $12 million a year, Beard said. The state budget has no money approved for such an expense.
Spokespeople for the governor, Senate president and House speaker did not reply to requests for comment.
DCF was first asked for comment on Monday but did not respond until McManus’ email Thursday. It said the state already runs programs to make sure “children have access to nutritious meals.”
Those include free and reduced lunch programs at school, SNAP benefits to families who qualify, and Summer Break Spot programs administered by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Florida has a record of culling the ranks of those receiving food assistance. It opted out of a COVID-19 food benefits program two years before it expired in March, costing the state $5 billion. Also in 2021, Gov. Ron DeSantis decided not to enlist in a pandemic food aid program for about 2 million children from low-income families that would have brought Florida $820 million.
And with one in seven homes short on food to feed their families, Beard said, agencies like hers “are looking for as many tools in the toolbox as we can find. This would be a huge missed opportunity.”
In a letter to Washington in July, Vianka Colin of the agriculture department said her agency wasn’t “the best equipped” to run the program, and that DCF would be better suited to the task.
“At this time, the FDACS does not have the necessary infrastructure and legislative directive to administer the Summer EBT Program,” Colin said.
DCF does have the infrastructure as the state agency in charge of running SNAP and providing customer support services, she said. The agriculture department helped DCF issue Pandemic EBT cards in the past, and would be willing to do the same with Summer EBT cards, Colin said.
“We look forward to our continued partnership to ensure that children in our state have continuous access to nutritious food throughout the summer,” she wrote.
The full quote perfectly describes the Republican mindset.
“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”
“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.
“Both very busy, sir.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I am very glad to hear it.”
“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,” returned the gentleman, “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”
“Nothing!” Scrooge replied.
“You wish to be anonymous?”
“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas, and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned–they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
Clearly racism and bigotry. They even rescinded anti-discrimination policies. Why not discriminating is good, discrimination is bad. But we can thank tRump for making it safe for these … people to come out from under the rocks and openly push for white supremacy. Their goal is to push the LGBTQIA out of public view and remove any equality for black / brown people. Read the quote below and see if you can find the real truth he is saying.
Cook, in July, defended rescinding the anti-racism resolution, saying the board “doesn’t need to be in the business of dividing the community.”
Why would anti-racism divide the community unless a lot of the white community wants to be racist against the black community, and the whites feel targeted / put on by the resolution. Hugs. Scottie
O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — A conservative-led Missouri school board has voted to drop elective courses on Black history and literature, five months after the same boardrescinded an anti-discrimination policyadopted in the aftermath of the killing ofGeorge Floyd.
The Francis Howell School Board voted 5-2 Thursday night to stop offering Black History and Black Literature, courses that had been offered at the district’s three high schools since 2021. A little over 100 students took the courses this semester in the predominantly white suburban area of St. Louis.
In July, the board revoked an anti-racism resolution and ordered copies removed from school buildings. The resolution was adopted in August 2020 amid the national turmoil after a police officer killed Floyd in Minneapolis.
The resolution pledged that the Francis Howell community would “speak firmly against any racism, discrimination, and senseless violence against people regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or ability.”
The resolution and course offerings were targeted by five new members who have taken control of the board since being elected last year and in April, all with the backing of the conservative political action committee Francis Howell Families. All seven board members are white.
The PAC’s website expresses strong opposition to the courses, saying they involve principals of critical race theory, though many experts say the scholarly theory centered on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions is not taught in K-12 schools.
The decision to drop the courses was met with protests outside the board meeting. Several parents and students chanted, “Let them learn!” Inside, speakers questioned the decision.
“You’ve certainly taught me to not underestimate how low you will go to show your disdain toward the Black and brown communities’ experiences and existence,” Harry Harris, a Black father, told the board.
Another speaker, Tom Ferri, urged the board to focus on bigger issues such as high turnover among teachers.
“Tapping into a diverse talent pipeline would be a great way to slow attrition, but what diverse staff wants to work in a district waging culture wars?” he asked.
Board Vice President Randy Cook Jr., who was elected in 2022, said the Francis Howell courses to which he and others objected used “Social Justice Standards” developed by the Southern Poverty Law Center with a bent toward activism.
“I do not object to teaching black history and black literature; but I do object to teaching black history and black literature through a social justice framework,” Cook said in an email on Friday. “I do not believe it is the public school’s responsibility to teach social justice and activism.”
District spokesperson Jennifer Jolls said in an email that new Black history and literature courses “could be redeveloped and brought to the Board for approval in the future.”
This semester, 60 students at the three schools combined enrolled in the Black History course, and 42 took Black Literature, the district said.
Francis Howell is among Missouri’s largest school districts, with 16,647 students, 7.7% of whom are Black. The district is on the far western edge of the St. Louis area, in St. Charles County.
The county’s dramatic growth has coincided with the equally dramatic population decline in St. Louis city. In 1960, St. Louis had 750,000 residents and St. Charles County had 53,000. St. Louis’ population is now 293,000, nearly evenly split between Black and white residents. St. Charles County has grown to about 415,000 residents, 6% of whom are Black.
Racial issues remain especially sensitive in the St. Louis region, more than nine years after a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri,fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brownduring a street confrontation. Officer Darren Wilson was not charged and the shooting led to months of often violent protests, becoming a catalyst for the national Black Lives Matter movement.
Cook, in July, defended rescinding the anti-racism resolution, saying the board “doesn’t need to be in the business of dividing the community.”
“We just need to stick to the business of educating students here and stay out of the national politics,” he said.
The district’s description of the Black Literature course says it focuses “on contemporary and multi-genre literary works of Black authors and will celebrate the dignity and identity of Black voices.”
For the Black History course, the description reads, “Students understand the present more thoroughly when they understand the roots of today’s world in light of their knowledge of the past. This Black History course tells the history of Blacks from the beginning Ancient Civilizations of Africa through the present day accomplishments and achievements of Black individuals today.”
School board elections across the U.S. have become intense political battlegrounds since 2020, when some groups began pushing back against policies aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19.
PACs in many local districts have successfully elected candidates who promised to take action against teachings on race and sexuality, remove books deemed offensive and stop transgender-inclusive sports teams.
Never ceases to amaze me that a word generally understood to mean “not asleep,” “awake” is the worst epithet that Trump and his thugs can throw at progressives.
It just shows how entrenched they are in their dogma they are, that equality is so undesirable. They are incapable of considering anything that challenges their bigotry
I recall reading about a journalist who asked a bunch of Trump supporters what “woke” means to them. The replies were hysterical.
Half of them really didn’t have any idea what it means. The other half used the usual “commie, socialist, atheist, homo” description they use when describing anyone or anything they don’t like or don’t understand.
It was first used by white liberals to mean “I’m listening to women, black, hispanic, lgbt, etc. voices and hearing what they are saying.” How horrible. To acknowledge other people’s lived experiences and treat them with respect.
Yep, in the city of Saint Louis , in the gated private streets of 1904 Worlds Fair era mansions just north of the large city park where the Fair was held. Private streets are really private, they don’t allow (certain) non-residents to walk or drive there – the streets hire private security. I have lived about 2 blocks from idiot gun-toters’ house for over 30 years, in a neighborhood of pre-WWII high rise apartment buildings. 1904 World’s Fair is the one immortalized in the Judy Garland movie Meet Me in St. Louis. “Have yourself a merry little Christmas…”
Yes, it’s population boomed, growing more than four-fold in the ’50s. O’Fallon, MO, should not to be confused with O’Fallon, IL or the O’Fallon neighborhood in north St. Louis, all within the same metro and named after the same rail baron. The O’Fallon neighborhood was hard-hit by block-busting, white-flight, and subsequent red-lining. It’s to recent to be allowed to publish the individual household records to see how many moved from the O’Fallon neighborhood to what is now the largest, and exceedingly white, suburb of St. Louis.
Think about the line that the school claims is unacceptable. “Wouldn’t it be nice to live in paradise… where we’re free to be exactly who we are.” That is what the school district finds so unacceptable. Why? It must be something to do with demanding everyone must live by the church doctrines of the minority. Hugs. Scottie
A federal court in Wisconsin declined to dismiss a teacher’s First Amendment retaliation claim against the school district that fired her for publishing a tweet critical of its decision to prohibit her first-graders from singing “Rainbowland” by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton at a school concert. She has shown that her employment was terminated for exercising her First Amendment rights, so her claim survives the motion.
A Wisconsin school board has banned the song “Rainbowland” by Dolly Parton & Miley Cyrus from a concert because they say the lyrics are “controversial.” The song says, “Wouldn’t it be nice to live in paradise… where we're free to be exactly who we are.” https://t.co/I5GRTpv44P
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) March 24, 2023
First-grade teacher @melissatempel was fired last week after she publicly criticized the Waukesha, Wisconsin, board of education for not allowing students to sing the song “Rainbowland,” citing a “controversial content policy.” “It was really horrifying,” says Tempel. pic.twitter.com/8wQzukuNFq
I never heard of the song and never heard it, either, but I just looked up the lyrics.
in those lyrics, there is not a single mention of race, gender, sex, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, or even a bigotry. All of those are the usual sources for bigotry, and thus of “controversy”.So what exactly is the problem?
Who knew that a plea for tolerance could be considered “controversial”, except to the highly and terminally intolerant?
We just want things to be the way they used to be — when you people were invisible and uppity brown folk knew how to hold their tongue. Just like white Jesus promised. Merry Christmas!
Oh, it’s much worse than that. The lyrics also say, “We are rainbows, me and you, rvery color, every hue,” and if that isn’t a direct call out to CRT, I don’t know what is. They might as well have said slavery is bad or something else equally controversial to the snowflake replubican’ts.
Because of course – “In her lawsuit, Tempel says that although Sebert announced in August 2021 that the policy would equally ban signs, flags and materials promoting causes like Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, signs saying “Students for Life” and “Thin Blue Line” were permitted to be displayed in school common areas while Gay-Straight Alliance locker signs and signs stating, “this classroom is anti-racist” and “this school welcomes you” were prohibited.”
I was thinking of the photo of the Wisconsin HS students giving the Nazi salute in their class photo. The only one who wouldn’t was the gay gentleman in the top right corner, who was rightly disgusted.
The policy appears to originate with Neola, a company that provides school policy services to 317 clients in Wisconsin in addition to more than 1,000 others across six states, according to the company’s website. A call to Neola’s business office in Ohio could not immediately reach a spokesperson who could answer questions about the lawsuit and the policy on Tuesday.
In her lawsuit, Tempel says that although Sebert announced in August 2021 that the policy would equally ban signs, flags and materials promoting causes like Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, signs saying “Students for Life” and “Thin Blue Line” were permitted to be displayed in school common areas while Gay-Straight Alliance locker signs and signs stating, “this classroom is anti-racist” and “this school welcomes you” were prohibited.
In July 2021, the district also suspended diversity, equity and inclusion training for staff and suspended the work of its Equity Leadership Team, according to the complaint.
I was a regular babysitter in the 1970s for one family. They let their son watch TV, notably ‘The Electric Company” which, in my opinion, was so frenetic that the boy almost became agitated. The show that followed was Mr Rogers Neighborhood, which he loved – as did I watching for the first time as a teenager. One day while the show was on, his father came home from work to change clothes and go out on the bay. Walking by the TV set on his way to his room, the Dad muttered, “get that fag off the tv.’ Years later, I remember the Dad crying into my arms at the funeral home visitation after his son committed suicide by putting a rifle into his mouth in his bedroom.
I want to send this teacher some money for the fight.
Thanks again to Ten Bears for the link. This shows the claim they are against indoctrination in schools is not true, but instead the goal is to indoctrinate kids in a hard right wing fundamentalist Christian ideology. It is a return to the fake myth of the 1950s society and the removing of everything LGBTQIA and gender identity. Total authoritarian back to the dark ages regression. It is a rejection of all the social advancements of the modern age. Hugs. Scottie
One thing that is seldom mentioned about the removal of books from Florida classroom libraries: much of this activity may be illegal.
The school board in Escambia County, Florida, for example, is being sued over their decision to remove And Tango Makes Three and other books from public school libraries. And Tango Makes Three is the true story of two male penguins, Roy and Silo, who lived in the Central Park Zoo and raised an adopted chick. The woman who challenged the book, notorious Escambia County English Teacher Vicki Baggett, told Popular Information she was concerned it exposes students to “alternate sexual ideologies.” Baggett said “a second grader would read this book, and that idea would pop into the second grader’s mind… that these are two people of the same sex that love each other.” The school board appeared to have similar concerns. “The fascination is still on those two male penguins,” school board member David Williams said. “So I’ll be voting to remove the book from our libraries.”
Florida English teacher pushing book bans is openly racist and homophobic, students allege
In May, Penguin Random House, five authors, two parents, and the non-profit group PEN America sued the Escambia County school board in federal court, alleging that the school board’s actions violated the United States Constitution. The lawsuit alleges that the school board banned and restricted books “based on their disagreement with the ideas expressed in those books.” In so doing, the school board has “prescribed an orthodoxy of opinion that violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
The lawsuit is ongoing, and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) has intervened in the case, arguing that it should be dismissed. In an extraordinary filing earlier this year, Moody argued that the First Amendment does not apply to public school libraries and that school boards can remove any book for any reason — even if the motive is discriminatory.
In Moody’s filing, Florida argues that the purpose of public school libraries is to “convey the government’s message,” and that can be accomplished through “the removal of speech that the government disapproves.” The issue of what books are allowed to be carried by school libraries, Florida states, should be settled at the “ballot box.” According to the state’s filing, public school libraries “are not a forum for free expression.”
Florida’s argument has serious flaws. Indeed, Florida’s filing acknowledges that no court has ruled, as Florida argues, that public school libraries are a form of government speech. The issues with Florida’s legal position were detailed in an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs filed by two dozen law professors.
Florida is arguing for an expansion of the definition of “government speech” to include public school libraries. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito — one of the court’s most conservative members — warned in the 1996 case of Matal v. Tam that the concept of “government speech” is “susceptible to dangerous misuse.” Alito, writing for the Supreme Court, wrote that “we must exercise great caution before extending our government-speech precedents” because it could be used as a pretext to “silence or muffle the expression of disfavored viewpoints.”
Currently, “the government speech doctrine only applies to state programs in which the government conveys an official message that the public would recognize as such.” Public school libraries do not exist “to carry official messaging” for the government, the law professors note. Therefore, “[a]pplying the government speech doctrine to school libraries would create a dangerous incompatibility with the nature and purpose of those libraries.”
A federal judge recently rejected a similar argument made by the Arkansas government regarding the removal of books from public libraries. “Defendants are unable to cite any legal precedent to suggest that the state may censor non-obscene materials in a public library because such censorship is a form of government speech,” the judge ruled.
The law professors highlight that there is a Supreme Court case that directly addresses the government’s role in curating school libraries, the 1982 case of Island Trees School District v. Pico. In Pico, the Supreme Court recognized that school boards have significant flexibility in determining the contents of school libraries. However, the Supreme Court was clear that the scope of the school board’s power over school libraries is limited by the First Amendment.
Citing previous Supreme Court decisions, the plurality opinion in Pico notes that “students must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate” and the “school library is the principal locus of such freedom.” As a result, it is unconstitutional for school boards to remove books from a school library in a “narrowly partisan or political manner.’” This appears to be exactly what is happening. And Tango Makes Three was removed from Escambia County school libraries because it didn’t conform to the school board’s political opinions about LGBTQ people.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit note that the precedent goes beyond Pico: “Every court that has addressed that issue… has rejected the position that libraries — including school libraries — constitute Constitution-free zones in which government officials can freely discriminate based on viewpoint.”
Florida realizes that Pico and related cases present a serious challenge to its position. In its filing in support of the Escambia County School Board, Florida argues that Pico should be ignored because it was a plurality decision. But the fact is that, in the 40 years after Pico was decided, the Supreme Court has never repudiated the case.
From “parental rights” to “authoritarianism”
The significance of Florida’s filing was recentlycovered in the Tallahassee Democrat, which interviewed several experts about the implications of the state’s arguments.
Ken Paulson, the director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, noted that proponents of removing books from school libraries frequently say they are fighting for “parental rights.” But “[if] government speech determines what books can be in the library, the government is essentially saying your children can only see the ideas that the government has approved.” That is inconsistent, Paulson argues, with parental rights. “It’s authoritarianism,” Paulson said.
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, said Florida’s position goes against the fundamental principle “that no government entity can engage in viewpoint discrimination.” Caldwell-Stone said, if Florida prevails, it would transform schools from a place dedicated to “preparing individuals… to make decisions about their own lives” to “indoctrination centers for only one viewpoint.”
DeathSantis keeps claiming that no books are being banned in Florida, that it is a hoax spread by groomers and democrats. Which to him and his ilk are the same thing. But he also claims the don’t say gay laws don’t target the LGBTQIA, but the way the laws are written they do have the effect of wiping out any representation of the LGBTQIA or the symbols of those groups from schools. Even anti-bullying programs had to be stopped because the way the laws are being interpreted they can not tell cis kids not to target or bully LGBTQIA kids. The real object is to drive any kid who is not cis or straight into the closet, into hiding, and instead of teaching respect, tolerance, and acceptance it teaches hate and bigotry. Hugs. Scottie
A quote from the linked article.
“It’s creating this culture of fear within our media specialists and even teachers who just want to have a library in their classrooms, so kids have access,” said Castor Dentel, a former OCPS elementary school teacher.
Parents, she said, can restrict what their own children read, making it hard to justify pulling so many books from classrooms. “They’re in a pile of we’ll-get-to-it-later and in the meantime, no one can read those books.”
The harm of so much censorship far outweighs the benefits of finding “a book or two that is offensive,” Castor Dentel added. “Look at all the chaos that has been created. It’s not worth it.”
A total of 673 books, from classics to best-sellers, have been removed from Orange County classrooms this year for fear they violate new state rules that ban making “sexual conduct” available to public school students.
The list also includes popular novels by Stephen King, Sue Monk Kidd and Jodi Picoult, classics like “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” “Jude the Obscure,” and “Madame Bovary,” and award-winning books like “A Thousand Acres,” “Beloved,” and “Love in the Time of Cholera.”
The rejected books include ones teachers say were once regularly taught in high school classes, such as “The Color Purple,” “Catch-22,” and “Brave New World.
Orange schools reject 673 books from classroom libraries for fear they violate new Fl law. The rejected books include "Paradise Lost," "East of Eden," "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and "Madame Bovary." Story and list (first obtained by @FLFreedomRead): https://t.co/xNWZldrgeS
To fact-check Ron DeSantis’ claim that book bans in Florida are a “false narrative,” we started with the Florida Dept. of Education’s list of currently banned books https://t.co/rzGRjGtmRf
Yet as bad as these bans are, the thing that truly does piss me off the most about what Governor Puddingmitts and his fascist Rethugs are doing is they then LIE about it and insist they aren’t banning any books at all, not a one.
“It’s not censorship, if we do it. It’s restoring ‘parents’ rights’ to approve the curriculum.” That would be certain right-wing parents’ rights, and no one else’s.
Fudd looks kinda like Vivian Vance, like in that wonderful story from Tim Gunn’s childhood about meeting Miss Vance in J Edgar Hoover’s office, except that J Edgar wasn’t there too.
Paradise Lost, a 17th Century epic poem by John Milton which has been banned along with dozens of other absolutely classic works of literature, has NO sexual content, gay or otherwise.
It is being removed solely because radical fundamentalist Evangelicals object to its subject matter, namely the depiction of a former high angel who becomes jealous of Yahweh’s new favorite hominid toys and leads a revolt. As a consequence, Lucifer and his allies are cast down to Hell. That’s it. That’s the story.
But fundies hate it because Lucifer isn’t portrayed entirely as an unsympathetic character and because the story it tells doesn’t comport with their biblical dogma.
I’ve was suspicious that the buybull only tells one side of the story about Lucifer’s fall and his mission against humanity. Shouldn’t we hear from the other side too? I just love mythology.
The real message in Milton’s poem is a common but very true theme: “No one believes they are the villain in their own story.”
Essentially, what he was trying to do was to create a framework, a rationale to explain how and why a figure like Satan could come to be. In the end, the conclusion really was that the former angel Lucifer essentially got what he deserved.
But like I said, this whole story gets in the way of radical fundamentalist dogma, which when you think about it is at the core of all these book bans.
To republicans in government being poor is a sin, it is the poor person’s fault. I guess they should have chosen to be born in a wealthy family. The republicans love the phrase pull yourself up by your bootstraps which is impossible to begin with, but even more impossible if you don’t even have boots. The governor won’t say why he is refusing the assistance for poor kids but normally these programs come with nondiscrimination clauses, but also the state would have to pay an estimated 300,000 dollars to administer it. It would keep an estimated 150,000 kids from going completely hungry when school is out, but the governor said there were other places the kids could go to get food, like summer camps. But normally the only free camps are religious sponsored ones that preach the bible and Jesus to kids. Is this the governor’s way to get the kids into churches? Hugs. Scottie
“If it’s an ideological issue, how can deciding that economically disadvantaged children are better off going hungry make moral sense?”
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s administration has decided not to participate in a new, more permanent Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program aimed at supplementing other efforts that target child hunger. (Courtesy of Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Gov. Jim Pillen’s administration has decided that Nebraska won’t be participating in a new national child nutrition program that could have delivered an estimated $18 million in grocery-buying benefits next summer to kids and their families.
The decision comes despite a months long effort by food banks and other advocates to persuade the governor to opt into the Summer EBT program.
A sign noting the acceptance of electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, cards that are used by states to issue benefits is displayed at a convenience store in Richmond, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
States across the nation face a Jan. 1 deadline to let the federal government know if they intend to be part of the summer electronic benefits transfer program.
Pillen spokeswoman Laura Strimple, responding to a query from the Nebraska Examiner, said free meals continue to be available to youths during the summer through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and summer camp programs, schools and community centers.
“In addition to in-person meals, those locations offer recreational, educational and other enrichment opportunities, as well as resources, that are of added benefit to kids and important for their development,” Strimple said.
She offered no additional explanation.
Nebraska Appleseed and area food banks were among groups urging Pillen to opt into the program. Eric Savaiano, Appleseed’s food and nutrition access manager, said the nonprofit was “deeply disappointed” and found the decision “difficult to understand.”
“Come summer, we know that more families will struggle with food insecurity because of this decision,” Savaiano said.
Appleseed estimated that 150,000 Nebraska kids would have benefited next summer if the state had opted into the new program. Modeled after pilot projects and a nationwide pandemic-era initiative that’s now ended, Congress authorized the more permanent summer program through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023.
The program offers an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card to children whose household income makes them eligible for free and reduced school lunches during the school year. Each of those Nebraska youths would have received a card loaded with $120 to help buy food during months that school is out.
Based on Nebraska’s participation in the pandemic program, Appleseed’s review showed that Nebraska would have to pay up to $300,000 annually to administer the Summer EBT program, which was a change from the pandemic-era program, where the federal government paid all administrative costs. States would be tasked with outreach efforts and would facilitate collaboration among involved agencies.
Said Savaiano: “If it’s a money issue, how can spending a mere $300,000 in state funds for administrative costs and receiving $18 million — a 60-fold return on investment — not make financial sense?”
State Sen. Jen Day of Gretna. (Courtesy of Craig Chandler/University Communication)
He added, “If it’s an ideological issue, how can deciding that economically disadvantaged children are better off going hungry make moral sense?”
A group of 15 state senators, upon learning of the decision, sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services asking the administration to rethink the situation. The letter said that while the governor has the final say, DHHS and the Department of Education “also have decision-making power on this matter.”
“So many Nebraskans are struggling with the cost of living right now and, as a result, people are growing hungry,” said Sen. Jen Day of Gretna, who led the letter-writing effort. “Opting into this program is imperative and not doing so is a huge moral and economic failure.”
In addition to Day, those signing the letter: Sens. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln, Jana Hughes of Seward, Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, John Cavanaugh of Omaha, Megan Hunt of Omaha, Eliot Bostar of Lincoln, Tony Vargas of Omaha, Terrell McKinney of Omaha, George Dungan of Lincoln, Jane Raybould of Lincoln, John Fredrickson of Omaha, Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, Lynne Walz of Fremont, Carol Blood of Bellevue.
The funding for the program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture is intended to supplement, not replace, existing programs that help families, including summer meal sites and the year-round SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
According to the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees such nutrition programs, more than 29 million children across America could benefit from the 2024 Summer EBT program.
The boy in the article was bullied so bad he had to drop out of school. This policy not only harm trans kids and make them feel untrusting of their teachers, but it also encourages other students to attack the trans kids. How would you like your boss or co-worker to constantly misgender you, use the wrong pronouns towards you, or called you by the wrong name. And please tell me what about using the preferred name or pronoun that a person prefers is against the Christian bible? Where in the bible does it say a person can not change their name? Where in the bible does it say to call a person by a different pronoun is a sin? It is just using religion to justify hate, being mean, and being cruel. Just how it is loving to treat someone like crap, it sure doesn’t make them want to join your church. Plus as the boy in the article points out, cis kids do this stuff all the time and no one cares. Also the headmaster refused to let him change his names claiming it might confuse the younger student? Using the protect little kids to cause harm to another child. Plus kids are not confused by name changes and wearing different clothing. They really don’t care unless they are told to care / be upset by it. Plus in higher education the rule requires the request to use preferred pronouns or names must take into account how the other cis students will feel. WTF. If I was a kid in those schools I would misgender the teachers that misgendered me, I would not respond to the wrong pronouns or name. I would put my preferred name on all homework and tests. Hugs. Scottie
“It’s inexcusable to say a child needs to have permission to experiment with their name or wardrobe. Cis kids do that all the time without their parents being informed. The politicians behind this guidance don’t know what it is to be trans, they’ve never listened to a trans voice so they don’t know what damage it will cause.”
Schools and colleges are also required to consider the impact of affirming trans students on cis students. It also says no student or teacher can be required to use a trans student’s correct pronouns.
Newton Carey was bullied so badly that he dropped out of school. He says new guidance requiring teachers to out trans students would be disastrous.
A 15-year-old trans boy opened up about his own upsetting experience coming out at school in the wake of England’s new draft guidance that would allow teachers to misgender trans students and require them to out trans kids to their parents.
“Transphobic bullying is rampant and I think 100% this guidance only fuels that fire,” Newton Carey told The Guardian. “If I’d been able to exist in my school as a trans kid from the beginning, nobody would have complained because I wasn’t asking for anything special. The only reason other kids saw the difference was because it was pointed out to them.”
One of the bills would ban Pride flags even on government buildings
Carey detailed informing his teacher of his trans identity at the age of 11 and said the first thing he did was report it to the headteacher. The headteacher then called Carey’s mom to make sure she knew he was trans and ask if it was okay with her. “I wasn’t included in the conversation at all,” he said.
The headteacher then refused to let Carey change his name on school documents, claiming it could upset younger students. At the same time, he quit playing sports because the other boys were making fun of him.
“When I started secondary school I was allowed to use the disabled toilet but the lock on the door didn’t work and it didn’t feel safe,” he continued. “I was badly bullied and my mental health plummeted so I stopped attending and was home schooled for a year.”
Carey ended his story by blasting the politicians responsible for the new guidance that will undoubtedly cause trans students across the country to endure similar struggles.
“It’s inexcusable to say a child needs to have permission to experiment with their name or wardrobe. Cis kids do that all the time without their parents being informed. The politicians behind this guidance don’t know what it is to be trans, they’ve never listened to a trans voice so they don’t know what damage it will cause.”
According to the new guidance – which must still undergo a 12-week public consultation before it is finalized – schools do not have a “general duty to allow a child to ‘social transition’” and in the case of primary school-aged children (under 11), schools are banned from using pronouns that do not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.
School officials must inform parents if students request to change their pronouns or name or ask to wear school uniforms that do not align with the sex they were assigned at birth, except in “very rare situations where informing parents might raise a significant risk of harm to the child.”
Schools and colleges are also required to consider the impact of affirming trans students on cis students. It also says no student or teacher can be required to use a trans student’s correct pronouns.
Mermaids, an organization that advocates for transgender youth, called the guidance “unworkable, out of touch and absurd.”
Is the point we are at now, the anti-LGBTQIA haters can’t get the books they hate out of schools or public libraries, so they call the police and lie that porn is being shown to kids? These groups did a sneak attack and got into positions to act on their racism and their bigotry. But now people understand who they really are and the public is fighting back. The majority doesn’t believe what the haters do, just as the majority of the public doesn’t agree with the maga republicans and what they are claiming and want to do. Just as the maga republicans keep claiming that they speak for the country, they represent what the people want, which is clearly not true, it is the same with the haters. They also claim to represent the people, the public, the parents, everyone! Yet their ideas and what they want are very unpopular, so clearly they don’t speak for the majority, do they? This is like calling in bomb threats to stop drag shows. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t give you the right to deny it to everyone else. Hugs. Scottie
The ACLU is concerned about a police officer’s having searched a classroom at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School for the coming of age novel, “Gender Queer” after receiving a complaint. The incident has prompted outrage in the school community.
AP FILE PHOTO
GREAT BARRINGTON — The plainclothed police officer who entered an eighth grade classroom to search for a book wore a body camera and recorded the incident, leading to more legal questions and concerns.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other free speech advocates say they are alarmed by the recording, as well as the entire Dec. 8 incident that took place after classes let out at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School.
They also say they cannot recall any instances of police going to a school to search for a book. Schools and libraries have internal procedures for book challenges.
“That’s partly what is so concerning,” said Ruth A. Bourquin, senior and managing attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts. “Police going into schools and searching for books is the sort of thing you hear about in communist China and Russia. What are we doing?”
The Berkshire Hills Regional School Committee and Superintendent Peter Dillion have, in a statement sent to the school community Tuesday, apologized for how it handled the situation, stating “clearly and unequivocally” that it does not support book banning, and committed to making all of its students feel safe.
“The recent incident at the middle school has challenged and impacted our community,” according to the statement. “Faced with an unprecedented police investigation of what should be a purely educational issue, we tried our best to serve the interests of students, families, teachers, and staff. In hindsight, we would have approached that moment differently. We are sorry. We can do better to refine and support our existing policies. We are committed to supporting all our students, particularly vulnerable populations.”
The ACLU has requested that body camera footage and other records related to the complaint and the investigation, Bourquin said.
It was an anonymous complaint that led Great Barrington Police to open a probe about whether parts of the book, “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, could be considered obscene material or pornographic.
Police then notified the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office as per the department’s policy.
They also notified school and district administrators they were coming to the classroom, and the officer was escorted there by the school principal. The teacher, who kept the book in her resource library, was surprised to see the officer. The officer announced he was turning on his body camera and then looked for the book and did not find it.
The DA ordered the investigation closed. The matter of whether the book is appropriate now rests with the schools.
In its letter, the BHRSD School Committee said the incident “has challenged and impacted our community.”
“Faced with an unprecedented police investigation of what should be a purely educational issue, we tried our best to serve the interests of students, families, teachers and staff. In hindsight, we would have approached that moment differently. We are sorry,” the letter said.
The committee said it would work to collect feedback on how it can do better, starting by hosting a community meeting on Jan. 11.
“It is the obligation of the district to use its policies, existing or amended, to select curriculum. In this case, the content was not the issue. The process challenging it was. We want to ensure that students and staff feel safe and supported and that families’ voices are heard.”
“Gender Queer” is a coming-of-age memoir about reckoning with confusion about gender and contains sexually explicit illustrations and language.
It is this that many in LGBTQIA+ community say they believe is the reason for the censorship — not so-called “obscenity” concerns.
In Massachusetts the testfor obscenity is if the material is of interest sexually, depicts or describes sexual conduct “in a way that is patently offensive to an average citizen of this county,” and “has no serious value of a literary, artistic, political or scientific kind,” according to the state.
It was a complaint about so-called obscene materials in the classroom that police say led them there — something they said they had a duty to investigate.
But the ACLU’s Bourquin disagrees.
“We’re very troubled by this notion,” she said. “They say anytime someone could call they have an obligation to go marching into places wearing a body cam, and you know, interrogating people,” Bourquin said.
State laws, she said, are “pretty clear about police not having roles in this situation.”
Both the state and federal constitutions also protect the rights of students to receive information, she added, noting the ACLU and GLAD — Legal Advocates & Defenders for the LGBTQ Community — sent an open letter in January to school superintendents statewide given the rise in attempts to ban school library books.
The letter, also sent to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, noted that legally such bans “may constitute unlawful discrimination.”
The letter says the courts “have recognized that the fact that some parents do not want their children to read certain books cannot justify depriving other students of their rights of access.”
The ACLU’s letter serves as a legal guide for schools and students’ rights to have access to information that is “free of censorship,” and says the ACLU stands “ready as a resource in this fight.”
The librarian at Du Bois middle school, Jennifer Guerin, made another point about that access. She said that it is “critically important for concerned community members to remember that the current situation is not about forcing a book into students’ hands.”
“It’s about the freedom to read,” Guerin said. “It’s about providing voluntary access to a well-written, highly acclaimed resource in a safe place for a teenager who might want or need it.”
A complaint that led police to search a middle school classroom for the book, “Gender Queer,” sparked a demonstration by Monument Mountain Regional High School students on Friday. The ACLU and other free speech advocates are worried both about the police involvement and about book banning in general.
HEATHER BELLOW — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
Using obscenity as an excuse to censor books with literary value is a heavy legal lift, said Bourquin. Obscenity laws have been “carefully crafted to ensure not tromping on constitutional free speech rights.”
If a book has value and isn’t meant to sexually arouse it will be hard for it to fail the legal test for obscenity, she said.
That test is “very specific,” and not something the average person or police officer necessarily would know, said Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition.
“It’s not a very easy test,” Silverman said. “And just because you have a community member pointing to something and saying, ‘That’s obscene,’ well, that doesn’t mean that it is obscene under the First Amendment.”
Like Bourquin, Silverman is stunned by the police involvement and thinks it wise to set a precedent for the future given the uptick in school book challenges.
“While it might be rare now, it doesn’t mean that it will be rare in the future,” Silverman said of police involvement in school literature. “I think the school and the police department have to come forth with a policy to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
The American Civil Liberties Union says it has “deep concerns” after a police officer in plain clothes entered a classroom, turned on his body camera, and searched for a book someone reported was sexually explicit. https://t.co/Sn0hAqyuer
Someone called the police to report that a Massachusetts classroom was harboring obscene material: Gender Queer.
The book does not meet the legal definition of obscenity: "Many see it as an important story helping build empathy," said the superintendent. https://t.co/IzbIZ1k7RQ
Listen to the student. He makes it clear that the attempts by people like Bridget Ziegler and other haters to make only one man / one woman cis straight sex acceptable, the students still are tolerant of other ways to express sexual enjoyment. What the students are not OK with is the hate and hypocrisy. He calls her out for teaching hate towards same sex relationships and the LGBTQIA while engaging in lesbian sex and FFM sexual relations with her husband, again while demanding it is wrong to have sex out of marriage. Hugs. Scottie
As the Sarasota County School Board convened for the final time this year on Tuesday, Bridget Ziegler entered the board chambers facing a rift largely driven by agenda item No. 1: a colleague’s resolution calling for her resignation.
Zander Moricz, who was the class president at Pine View School in Osprey and now attends Harvard, said Bridget Ziegler deserved to lose her job, but not because of her private sex life.
“That defeats the lesson we’ve been trying to teach you, which is that a politician’s job is to serve their community, not to police personal lives,” Moricz said. “So, to be extra clear Bridget, you deserve to be fired from your job because you are terrible at your job.”
Read the full article. The clip below has gone wildly viral with millions of views on TikTok, where I came across it a dozen times last night. Watch every second.
“You don’t believe in public schools — you send your kids to private… you deserve to be fired not because of a threesome, but because you are terrible at it.” pic.twitter.com/uehU7IIGp7
I would agree with that IF she agreed that other people’s private business is their own private business. But she vilified people for doing exactly what she was doing in her own bedroom. She’s bisexual but mistreated others for identifying as lgbt. She thought this was okay for others, so it’s good enough for her.
As J is pointing out, it’s not her sex life that’s the issue here – it’s her hypocrisy. Her bisexual, polyamorous sex life is evidence of the hypocrisy – that’s its only importance to anyone but herself.
That’s it. Her fellow conservatives would kick her off the school board on the irrelevant issue of her sexual “immorality.” He realizes it is her hypocritical judgmental sanctimony that is the real problem, not the issue of her private sex life.
The bottom line is this: Ziegler’s refusal to resign her School Board seat is more than just a morality play. If Ziegler steps down or is removed, three out of the five School Board seats, not just two, will be on the ballot in August 2024.
That’s right: What’s truly at stake here is that we could vote on a majority of the School Board’s seats on Aug. 20, 2024. And that would give us a chance to have a School Board with leaders who are more interested in students, teachers and academic achievement than posturing for a national audience in the culture wars.
“That defeats the lesson we’ve been trying to teach you, which is that a politician’s job is to serve their community, not to police personal lives,” Moricz said. “So, to be extra clear Bridget, you deserve to be fired from your job because you are terrible at your job.”
I had to look up the kid’s sweatshirt and it turns out that “you give me the ick” is teen slang for being grossed out by someone, often for undefinable reasons.
I think it can be both at the same time. Sort of like one of our cats. She will watch the dogs play with a toy she wants. When they are outside, she’ll bat it with all her might to move it under something like a grandfather clock from under which the dogs can’t retrieve it. She can’t, either, but the satisfaction she feels is tremendous. I try to stay on her good side.
That’s part of it. It’s also racism. Private schools were rare in the US until local districts were losing the last of their desegregation lawsuits in the late 60s and early 70s. (Yes, I know Brown was 1954. It was up into the 1970s for many districts to finally comply!) And then homeschooling also for the same reason. They can say whatever they want and some of it is religious and political but a lot of it is not wanting their kids to get to know black and brown kids growing up.
Context: This isn’t the first time Zander made a headline.
The class president at a Florida high school says he wasn’t allowed to share his experience as a gay student in his graduation speech or how the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law will affect students like him, so he got creative.
This video quotes a Harvard study that show 36% percent of trans kids are sexually assaulted when forced to use the sex on their birth certificate rather than the bathroom they gender identify with. Then the video talks about how the anti-trans bathroom laws physically harm trans kids while not help cis kids to stay safe at all. It is not cis kids in bathrooms being attacked, but trans kids. Hugs. Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 