What do you do when you are a school system with over $140,000 in unpaid lunch debt from parents ?
If you are the Albuquerque Public School system you give the kids a cold cheese sandwich instead of a hot nutritious meal until their parents pony up the dough.
Is this right? Should taxpayers have to pay for meals when parents are not responsible?? Should a child have to pay for a parents neglect?? The schools will let a low-income child continue to eat hot lunch for up to 10 days before they get the cheese sandwich. I believe its 1 day for students who pay full price. Taxpayers foot that bill.
Monday night the Albuquerque Public School Board will decide whether to continue the controversial cheese sandwich policy
Some parents have spoken out against the program saying it embarrasses their children and singles them out.
It frustrates me to no end to see parents NOT taking the responsibility for their childrens health. There are public assistance/lunch programs for many families, in fact, most of the debt has come from children who pay full price for their meals.
When I was a kid my mom use to make my lunch every night and have it waiting in the fridge for us to grab on the way out the door.
Since the school board enacted the cheese sandwich policy over $40,000 dollars has been collected from delinquent parents.
I do feel for the kids to a degree but I believe the responsibility lies with the parents to make sure their kids are taken care of.
I'm out.
If you are the Albuquerque Public School system you give the kids a cold cheese sandwich instead of a hot nutritious meal until their parents pony up the dough.
Is this right? Should taxpayers have to pay for meals when parents are not responsible?? Should a child have to pay for a parents neglect?? The schools will let a low-income child continue to eat hot lunch for up to 10 days before they get the cheese sandwich. I believe its 1 day for students who pay full price. Taxpayers foot that bill.
Monday night the Albuquerque Public School Board will decide whether to continue the controversial cheese sandwich policy
Some parents have spoken out against the program saying it embarrasses their children and singles them out.
It frustrates me to no end to see parents NOT taking the responsibility for their childrens health. There are public assistance/lunch programs for many families, in fact, most of the debt has come from children who pay full price for their meals.
When I was a kid my mom use to make my lunch every night and have it waiting in the fridge for us to grab on the way out the door.
Since the school board enacted the cheese sandwich policy over $40,000 dollars has been collected from delinquent parents.
I do feel for the kids to a degree but I believe the responsibility lies with the parents to make sure their kids are taken care of.
I'm out.
3 comments:
Its quite a policy they have there. I wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper on a "fair" way to pay a tax for the school system. I agree with the policy that, as Americans we shoulder the responsibility for educating out next generation. However as an adult that put my son through private schools at my ex-wifes insistance, there has to be a fair way. My letter suggested a flat tax everyone in Maine pays for education, then an additional tax all parents pay for each additional child in the system. Whoa boy, there were still replies to that letter six months later..mostly from parents with several children in the system and a few supporting it. I have a co-worker who still barely speaks to me over it and it was almost a year ago.
DGC
Unfortunately this is an all around epidemic, more than we know about. The parents get caught with the IOU system if it still existed. I agree it is a sad issue when it comes to our children who are supposed to be the future of this good ol' U.S of A. Sometimes the politics and red tape is what we hear more about than the successes of our children and what they've actually learned in school. You gotta love our school system and their politics.
OK, let's look at it this way.
If the children were not in school, the parents would be required to feed their children at home, correct? That's what they do on holidays, during the summer break, and any time the rugrat isn't feeling well enough to take his math test.
So why, suddenly, is it the school's job to provide the child with a lunch when the parent fails to do so? I can understand having a grace period - parents sometimes forget, paycheck schedules sometimes conflict, whatever - but really, aren't the parents the problem here, and not the schools?
If I were the school system, I'd call Child Protective Services (or whatever the equivalent is there) after a week, if the child hadn't been provided lunch money or a lunch. You can bet having to go deal with the kid being taken to a shelter for evaluation would cause parents who are too self-concerned to bother with lunch money to cough it up. And if the family truly does need assistance, that's what the free/reduced price lunch program is for.
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