West Virginia legislator: Children should "work for their lunches" [View all]

[alp227]

Last edited Thu Apr 25, 2013, 03:49 PM - Edit history (1)

This remark by West Virginia state delegate Ray Canterbury (Greenbrier County) is just now making the rounds in the national blogosphere including Huffington Post and Washington Post.

The West Virginia State Journal explains the bill:

The House of Delegates approved a measure Friday evening that would provide free breakfast and lunches to public schoolchildren across the state.

The Feed to Achieve Act, Senate Bill 663, came from the Senate's new Select Committee on Children and Poverty. It aims to encourage private donations to school board-established funds or nonprofits to pay for the meals. The bill also recognizes physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle and allows the county school boards to use the funds for other programs such as summer lunch programs, community gardens or farm-to-school initiatives.

But although delegates agree it would be difficult to deny food to a hungry children, members of the House of Delegates debated for nearly two hours on the ins and outs of the measure.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch," Delegate Ray Canterbury, R-Greenbrier, reiterated several times while speaking to the bill. He said his parents taught him to work hard and to not expect handouts from the government or anyone else.

"I think what we're doing is undermining work ethic and teaching students they don't have to work hard," he said before adding, "I think it would be a good idea if perhaps the kids work for their lunches."

And as the Charleston Gazette reported back on Apr. 13:

Delegate Ray Canterbury, R-Greenbrier, predicted the program could set up children for failure, "destroying their work ethic" and "showing them there's an easy way." Canterbury suggested that students "work for their lunches" by mowing lawns and taking out trash at schools.

The Gazette also reported that the bill passed...89-9. 89-9? Wow! The WV House has 54 Democrats and 46 Republicans, so it seems that even REPUBLICANS in this state voted for...gasp!...SOCIALISM!!! FREE STUFF!!!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_West_Virginia,_2012 Back in 2012 70% of WV Republican voters voted for Mr. 47% Romney, and Romney won WV with 62% of the vote and won EVERY county including the counties where Charleston and Huntington are located!)

This AP report quotes Del. Canterbury in full:

I think it would be a good idea if perhaps we had the kids work for their lunches: trash to be taken out, hallways to be swept, lawns to be mowed, make them earn it. If they miss a lunch or they miss a meal they might not, in that class that afternoon, learn to add, they may not learn to diagram a sentence, but they'll learn a more important lesson.

As the Gazette and AP reported, Democrats in the House spent some good time calling out Canterbury:

"It's looking at how to feed the children in a healthy way, as well as increasing their activity," said House Education Committee Chairwoman Mary Poling, D-Barbour.

"Kids can't learn if they're hungry," said House Majority Leader Brent Boggs, D-Braxton.

Delegate Meshea Poore, D-Kanawha, said Republicans were trying to mislead people about the bill.

"I'm offended anybody in this body would dare say a child has to work for their meals," Poore said. "I can't believe someone would say a first-grader, a second-grader . . . a fifth-grader has to labor before they eat. This isn't an entitlement bill."

This Canterbury guy also introduced a bill requiring public schools to use science fiction in curriculum.

Sheesh, why the hell is a state legislator for West Virginia (which had the highest labor union membership rate in 2011) essentially advocating child labor?