Iowa will not participate this summer in a federal program that gives $40 per month to each child in a low-income family to help with food costs while school is out, state officials have announced.
The state has notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it will not participate in the 2024 Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children — or Summer EBT — program, the state’s Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education said in a Friday news release.
“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families. An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic,” Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said in the news release.
Children aren’t poor. Children have parents that are poor. Children do not have boot straps to pull on to hover about the room. A child’s future prospects depend on their education and nutrition. Children do not have the agency required to save themselves from hunger.
You are advocating rigging the game against children to keep the poors down. Society benefits from the investment put into its children, so society should foot the bill. Its not only the ethical decision, it also pays dividends if you look farther then 4 years ahead.