The West Virginia State House just passed a bill which would theoretically provide both breakfast and lunch for every student, at no cost to the state.

However, one Republican lawmaker feels that providing underprivileged children with hot meals would do nothing but spoil them.

Per Alan Colmes at Liberaland:



The West Virginia House recently passed a school lunch bill on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis, by a vote of 89-9, according to the Associated Press. The Feed to Achieve Act would establish nonprofits to solicit private donations to go toward providing every child with a breakfast and lunch at no cost. But one Republican suggested that was a misguided notion. “I think it would be a good idea if perhaps we had the kids work for their lunches: trash to be taken out, hallways to be swept, lawns to be mowed, make them earn it,” Del. Ray Canterbury (R-Greenbrier) said during floor debate. “If they miss a lunch or they miss a meal they might not, in that class that afternoon, learn to add, they may not learn to diagram a sentence, but they’ll learn a more important lesson.” Canterbury argued that providing students with free lunches would destroy their work ethic and show them “there’s an easy way,” the Charleston Gazette reported.

Let's understand this: a Republican lawmaker would like to a) degrade poor students who come to school without any food in their bellies by making them work – in front of their peers – for their meals, and b) humiliate maintenance staff by essentially having students perform their jobs.

In other words, force children living in poverty, or the children of working-class parents who garner low wages, to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

By performing low-wage duties.

In order to eat.

Yes, this sounds like the conservatism I know and love.

Follow @David_EHG

