Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Campfield to poor kids: Bad grades? No food.

Most of the time, when the GOP anywhere does or says something stupid, I'm never really surprised, outraged or shocked. I've become incredibly numb to their caveman way of living and try to ignore them. However, having just learned that a state senator in Tennessee thinks the way to combat less than satisfactory performance of students is to withhold government aid such as food stamps, my ears perked up.

It's been proven over and over that students who go to school hungry DO NOT perform to their abilities in the classroom. Could you sit at work for 8 hours if you haven't eaten since the day before? Or even the day before that? Of course not. So why would we take away the little bit these families have? The state senator in question, Mr. Stacey Campfield (of the "Don't Say Gay" fame) states, "If the family doesn't care if the child goes to school or does well in school, the odds of that child getting out of poverty are pretty low." While it is very true that parent involvement in a child's education is a great way to ensure their continued academic success, I think it's safe to say that full out starvation is not the way to get to that success.

Along with parent involvement, there's many other factors that contribute to a child succeeding in school and not going to school starving is one of them. Another is NOT cutting funding for schools, but that's socialism, so we can't do that.

The GOP will stop at nothing to punish the less fortunate.

To read more on the effects of poverty and hunger on academics, click here.


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