Food Fight: School Lunches Hang In The Balance

New federal rules could deny hundreds of thousands of children free meals at school Jianan Liu for NPR Happy Sunday, This week, we reported on two pending federal rule changes that could deny hundreds of thousands of children from free meals at school. So why is the Trump administration calling for this rule change? For starters, the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to crack down on states being flexible with SNAP eligibility standards (SNAP = food stamps). USDA chief Sonny Perdue says it's about "preventing abuse." The idea that "abuse" is rampant in SNAP is, well, rampant among folks backing this scaleback. In 2016, USDA reported that $66.5 billion went out to folks receiving SNAP benefits. They also found $592.7 million in fraud. (That's a fraud rate less than 1%) But fraud (or no fraud) aside, this move wouldn't just push more than 3 million people off of SNAP, it would have a huge impact on kids who eat free school lunches. For starters, 40,000 kids would lose all access to free lunch. They'd go from eating for free to having to pay. And several hundred thousand would go from free school lunch to a reduced-price lunch. Pay some, not all. Advocates are worried about one more big problem: When 3 million people lose access to SNAP, the children among them will also lose their automatic access to free school meals. Instead, they will have to apply. (In 2004, Congress passed a law requiring that school districts automatically enroll children in the free school lunch program if their families already receive SNAP benefits.) The changes don’t stop there. The Department of Homeland Security has also proposed stiffening the nation's public charge rule to require aspiring citizens to prove they won't rely on public assistance, including SNAP. We’ve just scratched the surface at the potential implications of these rule changes. Click the button below to read more and to listen to my story from this week’s All Things Considered. [Read & Listen]( --[Cory Turner]( NPR Ed Correspondent & Senior Editor Now, let’s get into some news... An organization that opposes affirmative action has renewed its legal fight against Harvard over what the group contends are discriminatory admissions policies. The original lawsuit, filed by Students for Fair Admissions, accused Harvard of unfairly discriminating against Asian-American applicants. [Last fall]( a federal judge ruled against the group, saying that Harvard’s admissions policy did not explicitly discriminate and is constitutional. In court documents filed Tuesday, the group asked a federal appeals court to overturn that decision. They claim the court misread precedent — and that Harvard’s admissions policy uses race in a “heavy-handed, limitless way.” Harvard issued a statement saying they will defend the judges 2019 decision and that pursuing a diverse student body is central to their educational mission. -- [Elissa Nadworny]( NPR Ed Reporter & Editor --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- Student advocates have filed a lawsuit against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. It's the latest salvo in a fight over borrowers who say they were ripped off by their colleges. The fight centers around a federal rule known as Borrower Defense. During the Obama administration, several for-profit colleges were found to have lied to borrowers, and advocates pushed the Ed Department to use the rule to give students their money back. DeVos is now trying to replace that rule with a tougher one. With this new lawsuit, filed by the Project on Predatory Student Lending and Public Citizen, advocates are trying to stop her. The complaint argues that DeVos' version makes it so hard for students to prove they were misled, that few will ever get their money back. In a statement, the Department says it will vigorously defend its regulation, which gives borrowers the relief they’re owed, restores fairness and saves taxpayers money. [Read more here](. -- [Cory Turner]( NPR Ed Correspondent & Senior Editor California students win a lawsuit and get more money for schools. Two years ago, students and teachers in California sued the state for not teaching kids how to read. This week, they got a huge payout: $53 million. The money is meant to resource schools so they are better equipped to teach students how to read and will be distributed over the next three years to the 75 schools with the lowest third-grade reading scores. According to an analysis of those 75 schools by the Los Angeles Times, 7 out of 10 third-graders there did not meet the standards from 2018 and 2019. [Read more here](. -- [Elissa Nadworny]( NPR Ed Reporter & Editor And before you go, here’s something that could be really useful to you ... LA Johnson/NPR [We’ve made a podcast about how to make a podcast!]( will be especially useful if you are an educator helping students enter the NPR Student Podcast Challenge. In addition to the weekly podcast, we’ve got instructional videos and articles with so many tips and tricks..This week, we wrote about 5 apps that help you edit audio. [You can find that here](. See you next week. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [npred@npr.org](mailto:npred@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Politics, Code Switch and more! [Facebook]( [Twitter]( You received this message because you're subscribed to Education emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy](