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☆ With New Salt and Sugar Limits, School Cafeterias Are ‘Cringing’
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Julie Creswell | Audra Melton | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Around 11:40 on a cool spring day in early April, students began to stream into the lunchroom at Haleyville High School in Alabama. Cheerleaders, soccer and baseball players, and other members of the student body filed through the lunch line and sat at their tables. and prom as they dug into plates of chicken Alfredo, green beans and salad. Emma Anne Hallman, standing in a corner, watched the teenagers carefully. As the child nutrition director for the Haleyville City School District, she has the job of feeding 1,600 students, in prekindergarten through 12th grade.

Persons: Alfredo, Emma Anne Hallman Organizations: Haleyville, School, Roaring Lions, Haleyville City School District Locations: Alabama, prekindergarten

We have people that are willing and able to work, but finding child care was an obstacle.”Republicans historically have been lukewarm about using taxpayer money for child care, even as they have embraced prekindergarten. Nebraska and Indiana have both pitched programs to make child care free for child care workers. Child care advocates say the investments are not enough and called on Congress to authorize a new round of money to keep the child care industry afloat. GOP resistance to child care spending dates to the 1970s, when President Richard Nixon vetoed a bill to establish a national child care system, invoking fears of communism and saying it had “family-weakening implications.” Many of those arguments persist. But during the pandemic, many child care workers left the industry for better-paying jobs, and some child care centers closed for good, exacerbating the problem.

Persons: Emily O'Brien, Lennon, O'Brien, Jolene, Doug Burgum's, ” O'Brien, —, Mike Parson, Brenda Shields, ” Shields, Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, Glenn Youngkin, Richard Nixon, “, Kristi Noem, ” Noem Organizations: Republican, Gov, Republicans, Democratic, Republican Gov, Pro, Virginia Gov, U.S . Chamber of Commerce Foundation, KWAT, Associated Press Locations: North Dakota, Forks, Bismarck, New Mexico, Vermont, Missouri, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Nebraska, Indiana, Idaho, U.S, South Dakota, Watertown , South Dakota, AP.org

☆ Opinion | New York’s Era of Overspending Ends With a Shudder
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Mara Gay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

After years of heady spending, the budget cuts announced by Mayor Eric Adams last week hit New York City like a punch to the gut: Most libraries would be closed on Sundays. So would efforts to improve New York’s notoriously dirty streets and keep rats at bay. The brutal cuts come as Mr. Adams scrambles to fill a $7 billion budget deficit in the next year. The Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan watchdog group, estimates that the budget gap could be significantly higher, closer to $10.6 billion. At the same time, thousands of migrants began arriving at the city’s doorstep in need of shelter.

Persons: Eric Adams, Adams, Bill de Blasio, Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg, de Blasio Organizations: Budget Commission, Wall Locations: York City, city’s, City, Federal

At a town hall in Coney Island, Brooklyn, on Monday night, the mayor said the cuts were real but that he did not want to make them. The police commissioner, Edward Caban, has yet to make a public statement about the implications of a proposal that would bring the number of officers below 30,000 for the first time in decades. There were nearly 35,000 officers in the department in 2022. is stretched as thin as it could go right now,” said Paul DiGiacomo, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association. Every agency would be affected, including the Department of Education, which would see its budget cut by $1 billion over two years; the Sanitation Department; the city’s libraries; and popular programs like summer school and universal prekindergarten.

Persons: ”, “, Yell, Edward Caban, Paul DiGiacomo, ’, Mr, Adams Organizations: D.C, ”, Police Department, ’ Endowment Association, Department of Education, Sanitation Department Locations: Coney Island , Brooklyn

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Top officials at a Florida school district ordered the removal of all books and material containing LBGTQ+ characters and themes from classrooms and campus libraries, saying that was needed to conform to a state law backed by Gov. The district later backed off a bit, allowing some exceptions for high school libraries. Political Cartoons View All 1185 ImagesThe school district did not respond to calls Wednesday from the AP seeking comment. But the group says Florida Department of Education officials are to blame for any district confusion or overreach. The school district issued a statement to Popular Information this week clarifying some of the superintendent and attorney's remarks, saying some material with LGBTQ+ themes or characters would still be available in high school libraries.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, “, Mark Vianello, Michael McKinley, ”, Read, McKinley Organizations: —, Gov, Charlotte, Florida Parental, Florida, Read, Associated Press, DeSantis, Republican, Walt Disney Co, Florida Department of Education, Vianello Locations: FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla, Florida, Fort Myers, Sarasota

☆ These states are restoring free school meals for all kids, regardless of income
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Pandemic offered a 'trial run' for free meals"The pandemic was a trial run and it worked," Crystal FitzSimons, FRAC's director of school and out-of-school time programs, said of the universal free school meals. Inflationary pressures have since pushed up prices in many school districts, which have contended with higher costs for food and labor, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association. Since local school districts set their own prices, they can "vary widely" across the country, the School Nutrition Association said. Loss of free meals may lead to hardshipIn 2021, the National School Lunch Program provided 2.2 billion meals, about 99% of which were at a free or reduced price, according to USDA data. Kids from "food-insecure and marginally food-secure" households are more likely to eat school meals, according to the USDA.

Persons: Crystal FitzSimons, FitzSimons, Diane Pratt, Saied Toossi Organizations: Agriculture Department, School Nutrition, School Nutrition Association, USDA, Sdi

☆ Opinion | The Wrong Way to Cut New York City’s Budget
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Mara Gay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After a decade-long spending spree and a devastating pandemic, New York City is now staring at three years of huge budget deficits, beginning with at least $4.2 billion in the year that starts in July of next year. Mayor Eric Adams, rightly, is trying to wring some savings from the city’s $106 billion budget. But rather than cut, New York City should increase its outreach and pay providers what they are owed. Frank Dwyer, a spokesman for the Department of Correction, said in a statement that the agency would provide the social services previously performed by contractors. But that could be difficult at the city’s jail complexes, which continue to suffer from violence and inmate deaths.

☆ Suspect Killed After Shooting at Nashville Christian School
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Ben Chapman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Covenant School is a private, Christian school that enrolls about 200 students from prekindergarten to sixth grade . Police killed a suspect who opened fire at a private elementary school in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday morning, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. The Nashville Fire Department said first responders were treating multiple patients at the Covenant School at Covenant Presbyterian Church in the Green Hills neighborhood.

☆ Arkansas enacts law restricting school bathroom use by transgender people
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Mike SegarMarch 21 (Reuters) - Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday signed a law targeting the trans community, prohibiting transgender people from using the restroom that matches their gender identity at public schools. The law requires schools to provide reasonable accommodations, that include single-person restrooms and changing areas. School authorities that violate the law can face fines of at least $1,000, and parents can also file lawsuits to enforce the measure. Similar laws directed at transgender youth have been enacted in Alabama and Oklahoma. read moreRepublican legislators across the United States have escalated a campaign to ban certain healthcare for transgender youth, in some cases seeking to charge parents and doctors with child abuse if they provide treatment.

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