My school you got on a list if you had to borrow. I didn't stay on the list for long. I don't remember a cap or a penalty system, but we were good about getting off the list quickly.

School band is now an "extracurricular activity"?

Newsflash: Don't loan poor people money.

They have to pay for their lunch? Wow, that is weird.

We get free breakfast and lunch...

ThatGuyGreg: Lunch... bills? When did they move away from a cash/prepaid card system? Is this a widespread thing?

/been a while

I know,getting an IOU for lunch?

/how does this even work?

So what are bullies beating dweebs for if not lunch money?

Lemme see if I've got this figured out. The parents are deadbeats so punish the kids. Did I get that right?

jtown: Lemme see if I've got this figured out. The parents are deadbeats so punish the kids. Did I get that right?

Just generally speaking, has that ever not been the case?

Donnchadha: However, they'd hunt you down if you didn't pay them back within the week. You couldn't rack up a bill of more than $5.

FTA: A southeast Ohio school district says it will penalize students who owe more than $50 in their lunch bills by taking away their extra-curricular activities.

$50, WTF?

ThatGuyGreg: Lunch... bills? When did they move away from a cash/prepaid card system? Is this a widespread thing?

/been a while

My kid's school has the prepaid system, but they will let them go negative if they fall below zero. They aren't going to starve a kid. I think it happened to us once... we get busy and as for writing the school another check... aint nobody got time for that! Anyway, I don't know how far they would let a kid get into the negatives before action was taken. I think restricting other "free" activities is fair, if you are utilizing other resources for free, such as food.

If we don't-a practice, we don't-a play. And if we don't-a play, that runs into money.

Like a loan shark the leg breakers come next.

netcentric: They have to pay for their lunch? Wow, that is weird.

We get free breakfast and lunch...

You sound Mexican.

In Texas you just cancel high school football.

Switzerland, Ohio

Think about that.

Just include lunch for all kids as an operating expense and be done with it. Never understood why some schools would have 70-90% of students who qualified for free or reduced lunch, yet still required the 30-10% to still pay if they could.

Its not like they were breaking even on the small percentage that paid.

Arugula for all.

We had this. If you didn't have money you went to this little office and they fill out a slip with your info (Name Grade Amount) you were given enough for the basic lunch Milk, main course, veggie, starch. Then they gave you a paper in Homeroom at the end of the year saying how much you owed before you could get your report card.
I go every day, get money for the Basic lunch, then hold my $1.25 I think for the pizza place after school and play 5 video games. So 180 school days $225, I'd get my ass kicked once per year when I brought the note home.

Subby: "Kids say win-win"

Everyone else: "where?"

Because you can't educate a child for a mere $9,000/year. Chalk is expensive, Holmes.

titwrench: netcentric: They have to pay for their lunch? Wow, that is weird.

We get free breakfast and lunch...

You sound Mexican.


I is not.... but sometimes for lunch we get tacos....

Thunderboy: School band is now an "extracurricular activity"?

Given that Subby made up the "band" part out of whole cloth, not necessarily.

In reality, it depends on the school.

netcentric: They have to pay for their lunch? Wow, that is weird.

We get free breakfast and lunch...

Wow, no kidding?

Any Pennsylvania taxpayers on FARK who can corroborate?

FTA: Superintendent Larry Elliott said it's something administrators don't want to have to do, but they needed to get students to take care of their unpaid bills in the financially strapped school district.

Forbes says that guy is worth $41 Billion, and he's whining about kids owing $50.

/Oops, wrong Larry
//I must have failed reading comprehension

Thunderboy

School band is now an "extracurricular activity"?


What else should it be?

doubled99: Thunderboy

School band is now an "extracurricular activity"?


What else should it be?

Reading, Riting, Rithmetic, and Rhythm.

Brilliant. I'm sure the kids who don't have lunch money are just holding out. They should add interest and fines too! That will teach them to game the system.

That 7 year old with a horrific home life who enjoys a decent meal and some enjoyment from band will be served well by this. If 7 years old is old enough to beg for money in third world countries it's good enough for here too.

doubled99: Thunderboy

School band is now an "extracurricular activity"?


What else should it be?

A curricular activity, I guess? Back in my day [/onionbelt], it was a class like any other - it took place during school hours, usually the last period of the day, and we were graded. I guess the real difference is that it was not compulsory.

Maybe if guys like this weren't running the school systems they could afford to pay for kid's lunches.

BitwiseShift: In Texas you just cancel high school football.

I didn't think y'all canceled high school football for anything less than global thermonuclear war

My wife and I pre-pay and without fail my kid forgets to bring home the "Hey yer kid is almost out of money in his account", so we end up with a $20-$30 bill. I usually just write one for $100 when that happens.

One of the things that my Grandma loves doing is going to the elementary schools and asking the principal to let her club cover school lunch for a few children that are 'just over the line' in qualifying for school lunch. She and her old-lady friends then knit, sew and make various crafts to sell at the arts festival, all proceeds to feed the children whose parents are 'working poor.' So far, they have 'adopted' twenty-one children, and hope to make it to thirty this coming year if they can just raise enough.

They also make presents for each child, and though the principal is careful not to reveal the names, they do get things like 'Girl, 6, loves blue,' or 'Boy, 11, fond of Transformers' and the old dears always manage to make some kind of wonderful scarf, hat or mittens for their honorary, anonymous grandchildren. I've seen scarves with Autobot logos worked in petit point and black-and-red mittens with little skulls for a child whose friends all had Hot Topic stuff and them none. They go to some pains to make sure each child gets something that will be seen as 'cool,' since these are all ladies who went without in their own youth and know too well the sting of not fitting in due to poverty.

I think they got the idea from a 'Dear Abby' column.

My siblings and I send money home to her when we can, to help with this, since she always sends us something beautiful and handmade whether we've asked or not. This past Thanksgiving, my husband and I sent a couple hundred dollars for the children and a present for Grandma herself, and she sent us these beautiful mitten-glove thingies, where the fingertips are open, but there's a kind of pocket that buttons onto the back of your hand so you can go from mitten to fingerless glove and back in the cold. I can only imagine how long they took to make, and she even managed to make me gray ones to match my coat and bright safety-orange ones for my husband.

And then, when I went home for Christmas, I drove past my old bus stop, and counted five children wearing scarves, hats and gloves that were unmistakeably the work of my dear, crazy Grandma's club. Children of the working poor, honorary grandchildren of dear ladies who show love with food and yarn.

SevenizGud: Because you can't educate a child for a mere $9,000/year. Chalk is expensive, Holmes.

Which is entirely due to GOP austerity plans in schools.

Zeb Hesselgresser: Switzerland, Ohio

Think about that.

Switzerland of Ohio School Local District in Woodfield, Ohio. The Switzerland, Ohio in the byline is lazy reporting.

My wife is from there. My father in law and brother in law still live there, and my brother in law was on the Board of Education for a couple terms. My step brother in law was on the BOE until this past fall when he chose not to run again.

Very rural county, basically isolated with no major roads. Sports and extracurriculars are the only things they have. And these are for the few people who don't have free/reduced lunch. Basically its parents who can afford to pay not paying because it has never been enforced in the past.

Thunderboy: doubled99: Thunderboy

School band is now an "extracurricular activity"?


What else should it be?

A curricular activity, I guess? Back in my day [/onionbelt], it was a class like any other - it took place during school hours, usually the last period of the day, and we were graded. I guess the real difference is that it was not compulsory.

Yeah, that's how it used to be. Nowadays, it's one of those things that if the school can afford it and there's time left in the day and they can scrape together enough kids who can ALSO pay for their uniforms and instruments, then there's a band. No grades, very little prestige except in some top-tier schools, and it's always one of the first things cut when the school budget is slashed.

MBooda: netcentric: They have to pay for their lunch? Wow, that is weird.

We get free breakfast and lunch...

Wow, no kidding?

Any Pennsylvania taxpayers on FARK who can corroborate?

You can Google it. Harrisburg. We get breakfast from the Feds.... (thanks for your $)
Lunch from the State.

We are the Capital.......Yeeaaaa !!!

jtown: Lemme see if I've got this figured out. The parents are deadbeats so punish the kids. Did I get that right?

12 year old gets $2.50 from parents for lunch. Uses those funds to buy a red bull because he wants street cred for being extreme. Borrows lunch money. Does not wish to tell parents for fear of punishment. Note goes home, student fails to present it to parents for fear of punishment.

Not seeing the parents being at fault in this scenario.

netcentric: MBooda: netcentric: They have to pay for their lunch? Wow, that is weird.

We get free breakfast and lunch...

Wow, no kidding?

Any Pennsylvania taxpayers on FARK who can corroborate?

You can Google it. Harrisburg. We get breakfast from the Feds.... (thanks for your $)
Lunch from the State.

We are the Capital.......Yeeaaaa !!!

As I suspected. TANSTAAFL.

/my aunt's in a nursing home in harrisburg, i pay for her meals too

dustygrimp: jtown: Lemme see if I've got this figured out. The parents are deadbeats so punish the kids. Did I get that right?

12 year old gets $2.50 from parents for lunch. Uses those funds to buy a red bull because he wants street cred for being extreme. Borrows lunch money. Does not wish to tell parents for fear of punishment. Note goes home, student fails to present it to parents for fear of punishment.

Not seeing the parents being at fault in this scenario.

The first time, no parental fault. But, by the time the delinquency gets up to $50 at your $2.50/day, they should know better than to trust little Jimmy to act as a cash courier. At some point, they need to stop enabling little Jimmy's Red Bull habit and pay the bill directly because they have no reasonable expectation that the money would reach its intended destination through Jimmy.

ArkAngel: Hyjamon: Just include lunch for all kids as an operating expense and be done with it. Never understood why some schools would have 70-90% of students who qualified for free or reduced lunch, yet still required the 30-10% to still pay if they could.

Its not like they were breaking even on the small percentage that paid.

Arugula for all.

Because the 70-90% of students who can't pay are paid for with free federal money

I think I see what you did there?  And I think you are pushing at the point I am making.  Those who can afford to pay for their kid's lunch probably pay taxes that pay for other kids lunches.  In essence, you are buying lunch for multiple kids with your taxes, but not your own.  So go ahead and adjust my taxes so that it covers my kid as well and be done with it.  Then you don't create a difference between kids that can lead to teasing, namecalling, outcasting or a reason to segregate (poor table vs. rich table)