'There Is No Finer Investment For Any Community Than Putting Milk Into Babies.'

[sandyRoe]

And food into hungry children.
What are the arguments against free school meals for all?
I remember when I was at school the dinner tickets were colour coded. Green tickets for children whose parents could afford to pay, and grey ones for children who were eligible for free dinners. There were so many grey ticket holders there didn't seem to be any stigma attached to them.
In contrast, a generation later my sister's daughters, who could have had free meals, refused to take them. I'd guess they thought the better off girls at their school would have made fun of them. This added extra expenses for their struggling parents.
Free school meals would mean there's no stigma. What's not to like?

[youngmafbog]

//Their children might escape from poverty if they enjoyed a good education and were sufficiently nourished to gain from it.//

A noble idea but in reality cannot happen. As we have found out with Bliars ridiculous everyone to Uni, the lower jobs still have to be done and there are not enough 'higher' jobs.

[barry1010]

young, surely your daughter is entitled to claim it but chooses not to to avoid the tax payable on the payments?

[New Judge]

//I'm sure you're aware the deserving poor(workers in poverty) are struggling with all the price rises they've encountered in recent times.//

Yes and so has everybody else. But free school meals have been provided for far longer than "recent times". Like many other things that were originally provided for a very few, they have become an entitlement for far too many. When I was at school just one of my classmates received free school meals and that was because his mother had recently been widowed, his father dying in a car crash in which she had been seriously injured. She was a deserving cause. Parents already getting £20/£14 a week to help them raise their children are not. My parents had very little spare cash but they still managed to pay for my food.

[youngmafbog]

Once you earn £60,000 you lose all of your benefit through tax.

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/what-youll-get

[sandyRoe]

We seem to be drifting away from the original question. My thought is no child should ever go to school hungry. That's much to ask, is it?

[barry1010]

You are right, sandy - no child should ever go to school hungry and a bowl of porridge and a banana at home is a very cheap and nutritious solution

[Peter Pedant]

keep judges out of education
for the child's sake !

[New Judge]

//My thought is no child should ever go to school hungry.//

So are we talking about breakfast as well now? If so my idea that the children should live in seems more attractive. In any case I couldn't agree more. And the people tasked with ensuring that does not happen are the child's parents. It is not the responsibility of the State to feed children.

[barry1010]

I'm aware of that, young - as I said, she is entitled to it but doesn't claim it do to the tax

[Peter Pedant]

far from the question - surely not this - is AB

yeah foo - if oyu ask a judge what to do about children,
he will say " hang it, I am going to have to think about that one!" terr - daah

[Peter Pedant]

// //My thought is no child should ever go to school hungry.//
So are we talking about breakfast as well now?

yup we always were - go to skool when you are hypo - see above - then you dont learn narfin

Ay hev awfen thought - - There used to be prep 6-8am in the Good Old Days ( private school) - and they stopped it I think because the kids didnt seem to learn anything.

Victorian times there were some pretty crazy ideas about education children, wonder any turned out normal

[sandyRoe]

Children in care seems the very worst option. If they evade the attentions of paedophiles posing as carers they'll learn from their peers the squalid ways poverty and abandonment can take you.

[Prudie]

I don't believe even the most heartless far right thinker would ever disagree with the notion that no child should go to school hungry, of course they shouldn't, it's not their fault they are living in such circumstances. What I would say is that just occasionally instead of blaming heartless governments could not some of those filled with the sentiments of give them everything at least lay some blame at the foot of parents. Some of these children were as the result of 10 minutes pleasure by 2 people who didn't care about the consequences. Please don't suggest they are all from loving families who are suffering poverty through no fault of their own.

[douglas9401]

10 minutes!? I'm breathless just thinking about it.

[Khandro]

//Victorian times there were some pretty crazy ideas about education children, wonder any turned out normal//

So it seems nothing's changed then.