Showing posts with label EAG News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EAG News. Show all posts

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Feds cheer skyrocketing dependency on ‘free’ School Breakfast Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Federal officials are patting themselves on the back for increasing dependence on the national school breakfast program, citing explosive growth with free meals in particular.
Data released by the Economic Research Service shows the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s School Breakfast Program currently serves about 13.5 million students in about 90,000 schools nationwide, statistics that have more than doubled since 1996.
“Throughout the history of the School Breakfast Program, the number of participating children was considerably smaller than in the National School Lunch Program and is still less than half. Nevertheless, as the breakfast program finding increased – and grants to schools to help start up the program became more available – the number of schools participating in the breakfast program has steadily grown, making it available to more students,” according to a USDA blog.
The ERS data is displayed in a “Charts of Note” series that highlights research on food assistance and other topics, and was undoubtedly chosen because of the striking exponential rise in free and total lunches served to students since the program was founded in 1975.
breakfastchart
The program launched with roughly 2 million total participants, with about 1.5 million going toward free food and the rest toward reduced or full priced meals. By 1995, total participation had eclipsed 6 million with about 5 million in free meals. Last year the program provided food to more than 13.5 million students, including more than 10 million free meals, according to the ERS chart.

“A notable increase in the free and reduced-price share in both (the breakfast and lunch) programs in recent years likely reflects more children qualifying and choosing to participate during the 2007-2009 recession, along with policy changes that have simplified the process of program qualification,” the USDA blog opines.
Those policy changes can have a profound impact on participation. In recent years the USDA has expanded eligibility qualifications to allow for “community eligibility” in places where a high proportion of students qualify for free or reduced priced meals.
In those places, all students receive free meals from the government, as long as schools comply with very strict regulations on calories, fat, sugar, sodium, whole grains, and nutrition restrictions championed by first lady Michelle Obama.

And there’s also the breakfast in the classroom program that’s becoming increasingly popular in many school districts. Teachers in some school districts, however, have resisted that program because it cuts into class time and creates sanitation issues with younger students.
Cynthis Schaefer, superintendent in Keyes, California told the Ceres Courier the district implemented the program for a year by she canceled breakfasts in the classroom after teachers complained and the local teachers union filed a grievance.
“There are a number of issues to be worked out regarding the program, including employment issues that need to be negotiated with the teachers union,” she said.
In other places, like the UCLA Community School, parents have lead a revolt against the breakfast in the classroom program because they believe it’s offensive to parents and wastes valuable instructional time.
“They say if kids don’t eat they won’t learn,” mother Lilian Ramos told the Associated Press. “The truth is that many of our kids come to school already having eaten. They come here to study.”
The federal school food programs are also getting a boost from liberal lawmakers who seem determined to steer their constituents toward dependency.
“State legislation in the form of AB 1240 authored by Asseblymen Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, and Tony Thurmond, D-Oakland, is seeking to take such issues out of local control by mandating that lower income districts be forced to participate in Breakfast in the Classroom,” the Ceres Courier reports.
And there’s little question why. As the Food Research and Action Center points out, “it pays” to serve government meals.
“For the 2015-2016 school year, CACFP sponsors receive $1.66 for each breakfast served, $3.07 per lunch or dinner served, and $0.84 per snack. CACFP sponsors can additionally choose to receive the value of commodities (or cash in lieu of commodities), $0.2375 for July 2015 through June 2016, for each lunch and dinner served, which would total about $3.31 per lunch or dinner served,” a FRAC fact sheet reads.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

CHICAGO: ‘Social justice’ protesters launch hunger strike to save school with 10% student proficiency

hungerstrike
CHICAGO – Parents and social justice activists in Chicago’s Washington Park neighborhood are starving themselves in an attempt to force Chicago Public Schools to adopt their “global leadership and green technology” plan for Dyett High School.

CPS voted to close Dyett High School in 2012 because of years of abysmal academic performance and declining enrollment, with plans to reopen the campus in 2016-17 as a new school,Progress Illinois reports.

According to school data on Niche.com, Dyett High School boasted a graduation rate of 42 percent, with roughly 10 percent of students proficient in math or reading. WGN-TVreports 13 students received diplomas in its graduating class last year.
CPS is currently reviewing three proposals for the site: one from the “Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School,” which includes Teachers for Social Justice, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Journey for Justice Alliance and others; another from the nonprofit Little Black Pearl for an arts school; and a third from Dyett’s former principal Chares Campbell for a sports career academy, according to Progress Illinois.
Crisis over the CPS budget, driven primarily by employee pension costs, forced officials to reschedule a meeting on the three proposals set for last Monday to mid-September – Progress Illinois reports officials set a hearing for Sept. 10, while WGN-TV reports the date is Sept. 15. Either way, that’s apparently way too long for the social justice warriors to wait.
They marched out to Dyett High School and staged a hunger strike Monday to get their point across that the “global leadership and green technology” plan they cooked up is the only plan they’re interested in.

The protestors told WGN-TV they were under the impression their plan would be considered in a final meeting this month and would receive a vote Aug. 26.
So for now, a dozen angry social justice protesters are sitting at the school and consuming only water and “light liquids” until CPS officials give in to their demands.
“This is what it has come to,” Erana Jackson Taylor, 1981 Dyett graduate, told the Hyde Park Herald. “We will be out here all day … as long as it takes to get the message across to CPS about their fragmented process.”
“We are tired of our voices not being heard,” said fellow hunger striker Jitu Brown, who is a KOKO member along with Taylor. “There has to be accountability to the public for the destabilizing of schools in our community and the sabotage of our children’s education.”
Another protestor told WGN-TV her daughter is in eighth grade this year and if the school doesn’t reopen on time she’ll be forced to travel 16 miles to the next closest high school.
“We feel like we are being pushed to this drastic measure,” Teachers for Social Justice member Prudence Browne told Progress Illinois. “And that’s why I’m out here, because I don’t know what else to do. I helped to write a proposal. I show up to board meetings. I advocate, and it’s not being heard.”
Even defeated Chicago mayoral candidate and Cook County Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia showed up to the hunger strike to show his support for what’s “fair and just,” according to the news site.
Garcia told protestors he’s “very moved” by their refusal to eat.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

[VIDEO] Fourth graders get lesson in white privilege, racism due to Common Core

Your fourth-grader may be getting a little instruction in racism and white privilege along with his lessons in reading and writing.
A series of teaching guides, published recently by Zaner- Bloser Inc. and designed to be compliant with Common Core national standards in math and English, appear to do exactly that, according to EAG News.
The suggested fourth-grade lesson plan dedicates two weeks to the book, “The Jacket,” and mixes a little literature with a heavy dose of “white privilege,” according to EAG, which reported:
The story centers around a young white boy named Phil who wrongly accuses an African-American student of stealing his brother’s jacket.
It’s a fun little book about racism and white privilege – a left-wing concept that teaches African Americans the values of American society are designed to benefit white people.
Maybe it’s time we went back to the “Dick and Jane” series, when kids actually learned how to read and comprehend, free of ideology.
Watch the video from EAG News.

Popular Posts