GOP Rep Wants Kids to Work Instead of Getting Free School Meals

A Republican representative thinks students shouldn’t rely on free school meals but instead work for them.

Georgia Rep. Rich McCormick said President Donald Trump’s surprise order to freeze federal funding for grants and loans was an opportunity to conduct a “top-down” review of spending, including on free school lunches.

In a Tuesday interview on CNN Newsroom, the congressman tried twice to evade Pamela Brown’s questions about whether he supported getting rid of programs like Head Start, which provides free meals to hundreds of thousands of low-income children nationwide.

After the CNN anchor asked him more pointedly a third time, McCormick argued that “we are in such a deficit spiral right now that if we don’t do something significant, we will become insolvent as a nation.”

“When I was in high school, I worked my entire way through,” he said. “You’re telling me that kids who stay at home instead of going to work at Burger King, McDonald’s during the summer should stay at home and get their free lunch instead of going to work?”

Brown interjected to ask McCormick if he thinks children in his district who rely on free meals are “all just sitting at home and not working.”

“Of course not, but this gives us a chance to see where the money is really being spent,” the lawmaker said before doubling down on his fast-food narrative.

“Who can actually go and produce their own income, who can actually go out there and do something that makes them have value and work skills for the future?” he said. “I mean, how many people got their start in fast-food restaurants when they were kids?”

McCormick insisted that children should be given the ability to get out of poverty instead of thinking about “how they’re going to sponge off the government when they don’t need to.”

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When Brown pointed out that many students who benefit from free school meals aren’t even working age yet, McCormick simply said his sentiments don’t apply to everybody.

Multiple studies have shown that free school meals lead to better health and improved school performance without negatively impacting students’ weight.