‘What a mess’: Curley blasts WA’s $100M+ plan to feed all public school students for free

Washington is actively debating legislation that would provide free meals to all public school students, with estimates putting the cost at between $100 million and $120 million per fiscal year.

John Curley bashed the idea of feeding every student in the state for free, even though roughly a quarter of all students’ families are struggling to afford school lunch.

“The governor of our state and his friends want to feed all the kids, not just the kids whose parents can’t afford it, but all kids,” Curley said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “The reason they say we’re going to do this is that if a kid is fed by the state, then the kid feels shame. Here’s the logic: If being fed by the state is shameful, does the shame go away when all the children are fed by the state?

“I thought being fed by the state causes shame, so should they all be feeling equally ashamed?” Curley continued. “I’m sure the collective genius of elected officials there in Olympia could find a way to feed the children whose parents can’t afford it without all the other children detecting and saving that child from embarrassment.”

One quarter of students need help, but Curley questions feeding the other three-quarters

While Curley did, in fact, note that he is all for the proper nourishment of children, he continued to question if state taxpayers should be forced to foot the bill for an entire group of people.

“There’s so much against this $100-whatever-million to feed all the kids,” Curley said.”‘Let’s just feed them all.’ Why, why, why? Why do you want to feed them all? I might be reading into it, but why should the state, which is us, feed kids whose parents can’t feed them? There are about 1.1 million kids that are in the school system. If you look at the numbers, it’s probably a quarter of the 1 million whose families can’t afford to feed the kid.”

Curley believed that if this legislation is passed, the current price tag will increase and continue to do so, as there are no real boundaries on what food will be purchased.

“Why is the state involved in feeding the kid?” Curley asked. “I understand, ‘Oh, OK, certain kids are going to be made fun of.’ OK, find a way to make sure they’re not made fun of. When something is free, do you think people value free? No. ‘The state paid for it?’ They’ll just slap a bunch of stuff in there, and then [kids] will just throw it out. Why $150 million to feed kids?

“What do you think will happen to the price?” Curley continued. “The $150 million will turn into $170 million, you’re damn right it will. Why? Because nobody’s paying, no one sees the bill, so it just keeps going up. If I were the company with that contract, who am I competing against? No one, not mom and dad, they’re not comparing the price of the ham and cheese or whatever is coming from the company. What a mess.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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