Every eligible Wisconsin school district is providing all students free meals this year. Except

[TexasTowelie]

Every eligible Wisconsin school district is providing all students free meals this year. Except Waukesha.


At nearly every Wisconsin public school, all students will be able to eat free meals this academic year, same as they did last year under a federally funded program responding to the pandemic.

But not in Waukesha.

Administrators had opted into the program last year but school board members intervened and hit the brakes this time around.

"As we get back to whatever you want to believe normal means, we have decisions to make," Joseph Como, president of the school board, said in a meeting. "I would say this is part of normalization."

Board member Karin Rajnicek said the free program made it easy for families to "become spoiled." Darren Clark, assistant superintendent for business services, said he feared there would be a "slow addiction" to the service.

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2021/08/25/waukesha-students-there-really-no-such-thing-free-lunch/5573671001/
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

[abqtommy]

1. I've lived in Wisconsin and there are lots of weirdos who live there and are

considered "normal" and have weird ideas about what "normalization" is.

[secondwind]

2. I don't understand this way of thinking at all.

[AllyCat]

3. Waukesha. It's who they are. Hurt everyone wherever possible

if there is a way to hurt the poor in it.

[ashredux]

4. Some feel poorer people are just lazy and need to be punished

Not sure how not feeding kids is accomplishing their “goal”

[ariadne0614]

5. This cries out for a massive shaming campaign.

The only thing they’re “normalizing” is the idea that only certain children deserve to be fed.

[jaxexpat]

6. Harkens back to the frontier ethic (which has NO relevance today).

Though, with just a little more success for "conservative" policies we'll all be living on the edge of civilization.

[RVN VET71]

12. I was thinking Wilsonian America with its horror at Socialism

where uptight ‘Mericans passed the Espionage Act that made even whispering bad things about the draft a crime, where Joyce’s Ulysses became a symbol of debauchery and wanton licentiousness (which it isn’t, not by a parsec), and the Government sought to protect its [white] citizenry from dangerous thoughts and images.

That’s where these noxious school board members live, back in the early 20th century. And the struggle against them and theirs has gotten frighteningly serious since Gore’s victory was stolen by a fascist SCOTUS in 2000.

[jaxexpat]

21. Succinct. Good thinking on several levels.

It was a miscalculation when a guy who's childhood glimpses of history were tales of heroic men in butternut was allowed to inhabit the white house. I give you Mr. Wilson, of Virginia. His presidency was when the 'south' finally won the war.

I wonder that WWI may have, indeed, ended all wars had the axis powers won. That had never occurred to me until just this AM and all this time I'd seen myself a "long-viewed" progressive. Seen from this perspective, the whole of the remaining 20th century becomes a shameful display of materialism and bad taste. However, the re-write may not have prevented the arrival of some Trump or another.

[RVN VET71]

24. Interesting thought: what if the axis powers prevailed in the War to End all Wars

Of course, looking at history’s bumps and shifts, you can’t say what might have actually happened in world affairs. But I think it’s clear what wouldn’t have happened: Nazism would not have happened. Where a triumphant Germany might have gone is open to speculation, but we know what happened to a crushed Germany.

Also, I think the Ottoman Empire would likely have continued -- whether as the “Sick Man of Europe” or as a revitalized sultanate ruled by a religiously tolerant government. And that leads to speculation about whether the terrorist groups like al Qaeda and ISIS and the Taliban, among others, would have grown into strong and deadly organizations. For that matter, would there even be an “Israel” or would the Palestine state have simply developed along the same secular -- and religiously tolerant -- lines as the Ottoman Empire.

Even further, Japan seemed on a path of conquest regardless WWI. So maybe the invasions of Manchuria (Manchuokuo) would have occurred even without concerns about the Soviet Union (which may or may not have existed and whose existence, even had Germany assisted Lenin’s return to Russia, may not have been permitted to grow into an international threat). And if Japan had taken Manchuria would it have felt any need at all to attack the British holdings in Southeast Asia or, especially, the United States?

I don’t know if we’d be living in a better world, but it would certainly be a different one!

[jaxexpat]

25. The disempowerment of the British Empire may have encouraged Chinese homogeneity.

Perhaps adequate for becoming an influence capable of checking the Japanese militarist's early success. Southeast Asia without the conquest of the imperial Japanese army and contending with only weakened European colonial powers would have eliminated the Vietnam experience.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. From memory

Anyone spoiled by cafeteria food hasn't eaten for weeks.

[usaf-vet]

8. I live in WI and Waukesha is the seat of the Scott Walker rats nest. The take over of WI started....

.... there and metastasized across the state. It is not a surprise that the extreme right-wing mindset in Wisconsin is still centered in Waukesha.

The fact that the Delta Variant has extended the pandemic nationwide makes no difference to the deluded minds that seem to be predominant in Waukesha.

The very fact that the cost of living has exploded especially when it comes to the price of food in supermarkets across the state and country. It has become harder to survive in a pandemic that affects all of the daily activities the families have to cope with. And feeding the family clearly is harder due to the Covid pandemic.

So it is not a surprise the Waukesha would deny the poorer kids in struggling families in their district at least one balanced meal per day.

To call it anything but the hateful disregard for the health and well-being of ALL KIDS in their district would be a lie. It is what it is!

[Evolve Dammit]

13. "Addicted" to a school lunch program is what bothers them. Un-fricking-believable. Just hatred.

[usaf-vet]

16. Spoiled or addicted descriptions of a school lunch program coming from a school official strikes ..

... as coming from a member of the "I've got mine. F**k the rest of you" crowd.

https://govsalaries.com/salaries/WI/waukesha-school-district

[usaf-vet]

19. To give you some idea of the mentality of some of WI finest (LOL). I direct you to this DU post.....

....about Senator Ron Johnson aka RoJo.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215782960

US Senator (Johnson of Wisconsin) is actively encouraging people to ingest invermectin---a veterinary paste used to treat worms in horses!---INSTEAD of getting vaccinated

[Evolve Dammit]

20. "I've got mine; FU": GOP/ Libertarian common denominator always. n/t

[jaxexpat]

22. I'll never forgive those "rats" for running Michael Feldman off the radio.

His was the absolute finest in entertainment on NPR/PRI.

[Irish_Dem]

9. Angry, hateful, mean-minded people who obviously don't give a damn about kids.

They should not be near any leadership position, ever.

[2naSalit]

10. +1

[The Jungle 1]

11. But corporate welfare is just fine and normal.

This nation spends 92 billion per year on corporate welfare.
We spend 59 billion on social welfare. Think by Numbers

Why do I have to pay for football stadiums? Why doesn't the NFL pay taxes? Why do we give billions to oil companies every year.

The right does not want to feed kids. Sad so sad.

[Farmer-Rick]

14. Yup bunch of people I know are addicted to food too

There are whole buildings dedicated to handing out food to keep people addicted.

Some people steal food to keep their addiction alive. Back in the 1800s they use to cut off people' s hands for stealing loaves of bread. Yet people kept stealing food....it never stopped. This food addiction leads directly to crime.

Funny thing is, everyone I know, who has managed to throw off their addiction to food, is now dead.

Weird.

[Borchkins]

15. They're all about the hatred.

If you're poor, they're punitive. Heart of the Wisconsin GOP!

[Bettie]

17. I grew up in Waukesha

and I don't recognize the place anymore.

It is a right wing hellscape, filled with the worst of the "I've got mine now screw you" types I've ever seen.

[usaf-vet]

23. Thank you for confirming what the rest of us are observing.

https://govsalaries.com/salaries/WI/waukesha-school-district
Drill down to find what the assistant superintendent is paid each year while saying

Darren Clark, assistant superintendent for business services, said he feared there would be a "slow addiction" to the service.

SEE this DU OP.. https://www.democraticunderground.com/108427122

[PatrickforB]

18. Yeah! Feeding hungry kids DEFINITELY spoils them! What could be a better

incentive to learning in a classroom than hunger?

[Luciferous]

26. Because God forbid we make sure every kid gets at least 2 meals a day 🙄

[Ellipsis]

27. Waukesha... the bowling suburb of Milwaukee.

They do make a good Panzerotti though.