Roger Marshall puts school lunch money at stake in the GOP crusade against LGBT kids
Taking food out of the mouths of poor and hungry children would represent a new low for heartless Republicans like Roger Marshall. Kansas’ junior senator is considering blocking funding for the federal school lunch program because he doesn’t like a new Department of Agriculture guidance against LGBTQ discrimination.
Democratic leaders are racing to pass legislation for a $3 billion deal to extend the emergency lunch program before current funding runs out June 30. During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in Kansas, Missouri and across the country used those dollars to continue lunch and breakfast programs when schools closed.
For many children, the only meals they get each day are the ones they eat at school.
An objection from even one senator can block the process from immediately extending the pandemic-era funding and could abruptly increase food insecurity for millions of school children. We cannot let that happen.
Marshall claims he’s worried Kansas schools would lose the money because he believes the USDA could withhold federal dollars from lunch programs at schools that discriminate against LGBTQ students.
“I’m just afraid that schools in Kansas won’t have school lunches because of (the Biden) administration’s radical view on transgender issues,” Marshall told Politico. “And I’m afraid that they’re going to raid the school lunch program over that issue.”
So what are you saying, Senator? That you are willing to put millions of children at risk of hunger to protect Kansas schools from being penalized for discrimination against LGBTQ students? That kind of discrimination is wrong and should not be tolerated, certainly not in schools. That’s just moral and common decency.
Blocking a program that feeds children is detestable. Doing it for political reasons is disgusting.
And that’s what’s happening here. Because the Kansas senator is the one who’s misinterpreting — for obvious political reasons — the federal guidance.
The USDA guidance is aimed at school programs that receive federal nutrition money, which is nearly every school in the nation. But it would not be linked to other school programs not dependent on those dollars.
In other words, Kansans can cling to any restrictive and discriminatory LGBTQ laws and practices around sports or bathroom access, let’s say, and still get their federal dollars for school lunches. That money would only be pulled if a child is denied participation in the lunch program because, for example, they are gay or transgender.
Of course, Marshall is not the only Republican lawmaker objecting to the non-discrimination guidance. Attacking LGBTQ students has become a common GOP political maneuver. Marshall joined four other senators who signed a letter to the Government Accountability Office last week opposing the USDA action.
The outrage machine must be fed, and Marshall’s doing his best to do just that. Consequences be damned.
Pandemic dollars allowed Kansas schools to permit more than 501,000 students enrolled in the federal school lunch and breakfast program to eat for free. Of those students enrolled, 48% can’t afford the price for those meals. State school nutrition officials said that if the program is not extended in July, school lunches will still be served, but a lot of students would no longer be able to eat free.
Marshall may claim he’s concerned about protecting his state’s school lunch program, but as we’ve shown that’s a load of hooey. The USDA guidance does not put it in danger.
On the other hand, blocking the extension would harm poor children. And it’s a needless, destructive response to a perceived problem that doesn’t exist and likely never will. No one should object to extending a program that can keep children from going hungry, period.