Free Lunch/Breakfast For HISD Students

[musicman]

What do you think of this practice? when i was a child in the 70's, i remember HISD having a free lunch.....and breakfast for the students that were "underprivileged." I wouldn't consider myself a rich kid, but at least i always had a lunch or lunch money. I thought it was embarassing to get free lunch.

I was reading an article and now some schools feed 96% of their students free breakfast and lunch. I just have a hard time believing that that many children in one school are below the poverty level. But i bet they all have cable or satellite tv and gameboys!

I asked the boy across the street and his mentality is basically excitement that he gets free lunch. like he's beat the system. His dad is a mechanic for Lexus so i know they are not low income.

comments?

[pineda]

Search engine for schools

There are forms passed every year at the beginning of the year that parents can fill out to see if they qualify for free lunch programs. Some people who do clearly qualify will not send the forms in because they don't want to be seen as accepting charity. However, there have been published reports that show a correlation between eating breakfast and lunch and higher test scores, and these days with the heavy, heavy emphasis upon the TAKS tests, I think school districts are trying to do anything and everything within their powers to make sure no stone is unturned to help students do their best possible work, especially on the TAKS tests. The way the schools are graded is not by total percentage of students passing, but each subcategory has to score high. If even one subcategory, such as Low-Income or Economically Disadvantaged scores low, the entire grade for the school suffers. Not a perfect system, but it is the system as it stands now.

[musicman]

Search engine for schools

There are forms passed every year at the beginning of the year that parents can fill out to see if they qualify for free lunch programs. Some people who do clearly qualify will not send the forms in because they don't want to be seen as accepting charity. However, there have been published reports that show a correlation between eating breakfast and lunch and  higher test scores, and these days with the heavy, heavy emphasis upon the TAKS tests,  I think school districts are trying to do anything and everything within their powers to make sure no stone is unturned to help students do their best possible work, especially on the TAKS tests. The way the schools are graded is not by total percentage of students passing, but each subcategory has to score high. If even one subcategory, such as Low-Income or Economically Disadvantaged scores low, the entire grade for the school suffers. Not a perfect system, but it is the system as it stands now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

and for each lunch/breakfast each child eats, HISD gets money. HISD has been investigated recently for this practice. I think the superintendent abe saavedra stopped serving breakfast at several schools until they could present accurate numbers.

[Heights2Bastrop]

I was reading an article and now some schools feed 96% of their students free breakfast and lunch.

Last statistic I saw was 52% of HISD students are at or below poverty level. I thought that figure was high! I think there is a big difference between "need" and "want" - and too many just want that free ride.

I also find it curious that the people most in need of financial assistance for their children are the ones with the biggest families. We are encouraging baby factories. Why?

[pineda]

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