Letter: Legislature puts North Dakota students first

At first, I wish to stress that no little one ought to ever go hungry on this state. Good diet is important to studying and I care very a lot that college students in our state don’t go hungry.

Whereas a invoice to offer some college students with free college lunches (HB 1491) didn’t go the Senate, we did go associated college lunch laws in HB 1494. That invoice ensures ALL college students at faculties taking part within the federal college lunch program obtain a meal when its requested, no matter their skill to pay or standing of their meal account. It ensures no little one will go hungry. As well as, it prohibits discrimination towards any scholar as a consequence of unpaid meal accounts.

In distinction, HB1491 offered free meals solely to these college students whose households are at or under 200% of the federal poverty stage. For a household of 4, that’s $60,000. Many at this stage and under are already in a position to get considerably diminished lunches. Additional, this doesn’t handle college students who could also be above this stage, however whose households could also be struggling financially for different causes, reminiscent of a job loss or sudden medical payments. Thus, many felt it made essentially the most sense to help a program that takes care of all college students whereas conserving meals inexpensive for individuals who want it. We additionally felt that we wanted the total budgetary image earlier than passing one other college lunch invoice. As well as, with our sturdy dedication to native management, if we adequately fund our per scholar fee, the varsity district can determine which points are prioritized and funded. That appears to be rather more environment friendly than the state micromanaging and carving out cash for particular points.

Lastly, HB 1532 on college selection isn’t about diverting public college {dollars} to personal faculties. It’s about supporting college students. It takes NO cash from public faculties, nor does it fund personal faculties. Our public faculties do a improbable job educating our youngsters. In truth, by way of the Frequent Colleges Belief Fund, we’ve put over $500 million into Okay-12 training this session to make sure they’ve all of the assets they should proceed to take action. HB 1532 merely designates $10 million from the overall fund to make reimbursement grants obtainable to households under a sure earnings stage who would favor a non-public college however might not be capable to afford it. It isn’t about personal faculties versus public faculties. It’s about offering households an choice who in any other case wouldn’t have the flexibility to decide on. If North Dakota goes down the pathway of college selection, than the selection ought to be obtainable to each scholar no matter monetary, bodily, or studying skill. HB 1532 doesn’t fairly get us there, however it could be step one.

Each legislator is working onerous to make sure the absolute best training for all college students in our state. I get catchy headlines promote extra newspapers, however they don’t normally inform the entire story. As session winds down, we are going to proceed to do the whole lot in our energy to place our college students first.