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H. F. No. 5 recently passed the Minnesota Legislature with the support of 103 Democrat and 6 Republican Legislators and signed by Governor Walz. The purpose of the program is to help the children more “effectively learn.” The Bill provides “free” lunch and breakfast for all participating Minnesota school children from preschool to grade 12. I’ll come back to “free” in a minute, so hold that thought. According to Its authors, this is a “bill relating to education” and the meals can be had by anyone. So, if Bill Gates had kids in one of our schools, and old Bill didn’t feel like feeding them, the school would have to. Couldn’t blame him, it’s “free.”
Now when I read this, I couldn’t help thinking of how personal responsibility, with government assistance, has gone the way of the Dodo Bird. You see the ads on T.V.: ‘If you owe the I.R.S. a whole bunch of money it’s not your fault, it’s the fault of the I.R.S. Just call Acme & Co. you shouldn’t have to pay those stinking taxes’ or ‘If you used your credit card like a bottomless ATM, that’s not your fault, Visa made you do it! Acme Credit Card Division will cover your butt’, unplanned pregnancies are the fault of the baby, and apparently, student loans aren’t real loans that have to be paid back. Call me an old crank, but I think parents should be responsible for feeding their own kids. There’s no shame in needing help, but there are dedicated agencies for that. Charitable giving is wonderful, but government mandated giving isn’t, especially when much of it goes to folks who don’t need it.
Now as for “free,” in 2024 alone, this bill appropriates $190.8 million for lunches and $25.7 million for breakfasts. Of course, it goes up every year after that and it will live for eternity. So, I’ll believe in “free” lunches when our governor and the mostly democrat legislators go out on the front lawn of the capitol, raise their arms to the heavens, and make it rain manna. Until that time, somebody’s paying. And if Minnesota politicians wanted to improve education, they’d give parents school vouchers instead of taxpayer funded virtue signaling.
Ron Wizykoski, Hovland
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