A belated Christmas gift

In just over a week the Iowa Legislature will convene still glowing from holiday cheer. While that spirit is fresh and partisan fighting hasn’t exploded, legislators have an opportunity to pass a law dripping of Iowa values. It would save lives, and reenforce Iowa as a welcoming state that’s truly a “Place to grow.” Call it a Christmas gift or even a Christmas miracle.

Sound too good to be true?

In a normal legislative year, it is. But this year, Iowa is still sitting on $1.5 billion in the bank and the excuse that it’s one time money and only can be used for ongoing tax cuts is growing thin as a spring coat in an Iowa blizzard.

This belated, bipartisan, gift is possible by tapping the surplus to fund free breakfast and lunch for every student in Iowa public and private schools. This is the gift that keeps on giving because it will attract young families to a state desperate for workers. This is not charity; it’s economic development.

I can already hear the outrage machine screaming, “There ain’t no free lunch.” It’s not free. It’s using our resources wisely for now and for the future.

I understand when the tax cuts passed last year fully kick in, they’ll be a significant drop in Iowa revenue. But lawmakers giddy to give back, also promised that our state wouldn’t go the way of Kansas who ended up rattling a tin cup for revenue once their tax cuts were reality. Plus, if we believe the GOP, Iowa’s economy will soar because of those 2022 tax cuts.

But here's the truth about tax cuts. Voters have short memories. If you ask 100 Iowans if they received a tax cut, you’ll see that deer caught in the headlights look. There’s too big a gap between passage and implementation. If the Legislature passed a law that gave every kid in public and private schools free breakfast and lunch, voters would be reminded daily.

The COVID pandemic taught us several things, but one of the main lessons was that schools, even when closed, served as a community center no matter how big the town. Schools helped families feed their children and survive.

We can do it again.

Iowa, the breadbasket of America, doesn’t need a pandemic to know that children have a fundamental right to be fed. Right now, 1 in 7 Iowa working families do not earn enough to meet their basic needs. Some 229,500 are food insecure, and 80,160 are children.

Unpaid debt to the school lunch program is a growing crisis. For example, in the Sioux City Community School District, the debt for unpaid breakfast and lunches grew before the second semester began to $23,441. Luckily, the debt was paid by a Missouri River Historical Development Grant. But that was not an ongoing grant, and the debt will begin again.

Every veteran teacher knows hungry kids struggle to learn. That’s why for years, teachers, using their own money, have hidden stashes of food to provide for hungry kids.

We can’t wait for the perfect time or look around waiting for another government entity or private group to act. This is a chance to show Iowans that government works. We hear all the time from pundits that states should be the laboratory for positive change. This is a bipartisan opportunity for politicians on both sides of the aisle to show they care about Iowa’s future.

Rep. John Lewis said it best, “The hungry cannot wait. Talk is fine. Discussion is fine. But we must respond.”

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to public schools for 38 years. He taught for 11 years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association Regional Director for 27 years until retiring. BruceLear2419@gmail.com