Bradley Tusk: Pa. should feed all hungry kids

In Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget address, he took credit for feeding kids in Pennsylvania.

One line specifically caught my attention: “Pennsylvania Democrats and Republicans care about kids, and we are coming together to feed them.”

But that’s not true.

There isn’t a single additional kid who will be fed in Pennsylvania next year if the governor gets his way. When he had the chance to commit funds for universal school meals, he took a pass. Despite the support of a broad coalition, he said “no” to Pennsylvania kids.

In the last three years, nine states have decided to feed all K-12 children in school, no questions asked. Now, for 15 million kids, there are no poverty tests, no crushing meal debt on their accounts and no punishment for kids because of their family circumstances.

Tusk Philanthropies, which funds Solving Hunger, conducts legislative campaigns in states to pass universal school meals. Our goal is to get it to all 50 states.

Why not in Pennsylvania? The governors of Michigan, Minnesota and Massachusetts brought universal school meals to their states last year. The governors of New York and New Jersey greatly expanded their programs. Even North Carolina is expanding school meals.

Why not in Pennsylvania?

Not a single additional Pennsylvania child will be fed under the governor’s budget. There is no reason why he can’t take action.

This isn’t just a Democrat-backed policy. This year, in South Carolina, dozens of Republicans are leading the effort to make universal school meals a reality there, and there has been bipartisan support in each of the nine states that have passed universal school meals to date.

Among constituents, feeding kids in Pennsylvania is so popular that observers have rarely seen results like they’ve seen here. Eight in 10 Pennsylvania voters support feeding all kids in school, including 78% of Republicans.

Maybe the governor figures that the poorest children, mostly in cities where his political base is strong, are already being fed by the federal government — if they live in a single-parent household with an annual income under $32,320. What about everybody else? What about those kids in low-income households in suburban or rural parts of the state? One in five children are going hungry in Pennsylvania’s rural areas. Why are they being excluded?

We know that hungry kids can’t learn. We know that school meals are the only reliable source of nutrition for millions of Pennsylvania kids. We know that we can give them books, classrooms, teachers and a bus ride, but if they are hungry, they cannot perform.

Republicans should call Shapiro out for failing Pennsylvania kids and should seize the opportunity to put a portion of new education dollars where they will do the most good. Feeding kids would cost one-half of 1% of the state budget.

Yes, fix the leaky school ceilings, but also, just feed the kids.

Bradley Tusk is the founder and CEO of Tusk Philanthropies, which funds Solving Hunger.