New Mexico bans "lunch shaming"

[Santander]

"Lunch shaming"... cute, NY Times. They're acting as if the schools are intentionally being cruel to students for no good reason. Sure, schools happen to feed children in the cafeteria, but their most important duty other than educating children is to manage public funds, which includes getting parents to stay current on their financial obligations.

Letting kids get into arrears in the first place is a rather problematic policy to begin with.

[Santander]

The US has a long history of shaming poor people in exchange for borderline bare subsistence.  Anyone who's ever been poor would know.  Glad to see New Mexico is taking some actions to change that.

It is possible to be comfortable being poor. I'm not saying that people are necessarily poor by choice or that people on public assistance are bad people, but after enough demoralization and dependence on government, eventually it does become comfortable. What's wrong with providing some basic level of support to people but doing it in a way that stokes the fire within them to bounce back from hardship and shame? In fact, I would argue that that is the most moral and compassionate way to take care of the poor.

[Santander]

Spare the pointless moralizing. Some kids don't get enough to eat at home or anything at all, so school lunches are often the only thing they get to eat in the day. Not everyone can afford food after paying rent and bills.

The state should take those children away from their parents and feed them three meals a day.

[Santander]

several points...
1.this isn't normal, the fact that this is a story proves that
b.a balanced meal should be provided, for a minimal fee or free to poor people at every public school.
III.it is (well, often not balanced because the govt is still quite anti-science when it comes to nutrition)

When did free (or even full price) lunches in schools become a thing in America? My schools' facilities never extended beyond vending machines, so this is all a bit strange to me.

Cafeterias aren't a thing in your area?  Were students just expected to bring their own lunch?

I don't mean to single out this post, but I think this is a good example of the close-minded thinking by both the left and right. One can believe that feeding poor children is important, but disagree with dumping that problem into the school system. I talked about this before - we dump all of our social problems into the school system in America as if putting everything in one place and then throwing money at it will solve the problem. Schools are a convenient black box where we can throw our problems and feel good about not having to look at them. No wonder schools are failing.