Michael Tae Sweeney: Seeing a lot of "this story is depressing not inspiring!" And yeah. Here's an actually inspiring story you may not know about: school lunch (and breakfast!) in Massachusetts is free for all students starting in 23-24 thanks to Democrats using money from the voter-passed millionaire's tax to fund it

Seeing a lot of "this story is depressing not inspiring!" And yeah. Here's an actually inspiring story you may not know about: school lunch (and breakfast!) in Massachusetts is free for all students starting in 23-24 thanks to Democrats using money from the voter-passed millionaire's tax to fund it

A fifth grader has paid off the entire meal debt, and then some, for his elementary school. In a video shared to his mom’s Facebook, Daken Kramer had challenged “friends, family and local businesses to donate what they can to this cause.” He wound up turning in a check for more than $7,300.

A Missouri fifth grader raised enough money to pay off his entire school’s meal debt | CNNwww.cnn.com Kids can now eat without breaking the piggy bank – at least, at Thomas Ultican Elementary School – thanks to fifth grader Daken Kramer.

It's worth considering why a news story about a handful of kids getting their school lunch debt retired in Missouri from charity is considered CNN headline worthy news and millions of kids getting lunch for free via taxing millionaires is not headline news for CNN!

Michigan's Ws from having an incredible narrow Dem trifecta for the first time in generations are so numerous that I don't even know about all of them bsky.app/profile/step...

Michigan, too.

Hell ya bsky.app/profile/avoc...

Minnesota also passed free school lunch for all last year!

Absolutely true, but I'd add the naunce that the mainstream press likes to do "state welfare for the poor is bad" but when a welfare program offers generous universal benefits like free school lunches they'd usually prefer to pretend it doesn't exist (or is not a government program)

The narrative that state welfare is bad but private welfare is good has been preferred as long as I can remember.

We are currently living through the FREE SCHOOL LUNCH REVOLUTION and CNN thinks a 5th grader paying off $7000 in lunch debt in a state that doesn't want to do it is a bigger story bsky.app/profile/acca...

Colorado passed one as well.

That it's a cost-effective government program that has clear and immediately obvious social benefits is precisely why it's so stridently opposed by conservatives. They'll even tell you this if you ask them, they'll say it "fosters a culture of dependency" (i.e. demonstrates welfare programs work)

I was hopping mad when this was lifted post covid at our district. Imagine making some of the most bare minimum social democracy efforts, seeing the immediate and multiplicative positive effects, then pulling it up from the roots at the first cynical opportunity.

something i’ve been thinking about a lot is that childhood malnutrition in the UK has become so prevalent that the statistical average height of their children has shrunk. all of these things are choices and we can choose to have big beautiful well fed children!

One of the things I miss from the Bad Site is just before the pandemic I tweeted about by 3 prong education reform program: later start times, free breakfast and lunch, and a maniacal obsession with indoor air quality. I would retweet it every few months.

CNN clearly sucks but I also don’t understand how every rich person in Missouri isn’t deeply ashamed of themselves

Maine too (we were the first, along with California, beginning in 22-23).

Outrage farming. They know their audience.

do these stories do big numbers with the olds or other people just not as clued in?

Tbf the article mentions that he and his mom are in contact with state reps trying to make a policy change

Absolutely agree, it’s a blind spot they’re socialized to have

I'd love to see "welfare" reclaimed and expanded in popular usage. Kinda like how The Youngs are all communist now because they grew up hearing everything good labeled as "communist" by Rush Limbaugh & his successors.

Got in a lot of fights last week with people saying “when have democrats given us a reason to vote for them” and I ranted about what Michigan and Minnesota have accomplished

Virginia’s 2-year trifecta too Now we have a Governor who vetoed 10-days mandate unpaid bereavement leave for workers bsky.app/profile/saba...

Virginia's 2019–21 trifecta passed -Medicaid expansion -minimum raise hike -recreational cannabis -some criminal justice reforms -voting rights reform -LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination law -renter protections and lost gov & general assembly over a fake critical race theory panic ppl then forgot about

But his sweater vest was so charming!!!

Joining the Minnesota people's vanguard

I mean, just compare Minnesota and Missouri. If that doesn't make them understand, they aren't actually looking for an answer to that question.

I was hopping mad when this was lifted post covid at our district. Imagine making some of the most bare minimum social democracy efforts, seeing the immediate and multiplicative positive effects, then pulling it up from the roots at the first cynical opportunity.

See also: Child Tax Credit, which almost immediately reduced child poverty by more than 5%—an undeniably successful, cost effective government program—yet wasn't renewed because 1 asshole, Joe Manchin, plus every single Republican, prefer kids live in poverty so billionaires can save $1,000 on taxes

How am I just now seeing that I left the 0 off of 50%? 🤦‍♀️ Should Read: "See also: Child Tax Credit, which almost immediately reduced child poverty by more than 50%"

Yeah both those things were a significant relief to our household budget, and now they are gone. It's not a mystery why "the economy" vibes are bad for people with young children, specifically.

Hahaha yes hahaha

What state are you in?

Hopping mad, they said.

New Mexico has it too! Notably, it’s another Dem trifecta state

Food for thought: Free meals for all New Mexico studentsuk.style.yahoo.com Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday signed legislation to provide free school meals to all students regardless of family income, as New Mexico and several other states look to fill the gap left by l...

yeah was gonna say i thought minnesota was the one who kicked this off

And, it stems from a citizen-driven ballot initiative to create a non-partisan redistricting commission. Just wins on top of wins.

Midwest dems have actually done the stuff the Democratic Party claims to believe in so it’ll be super exciting when the 2028 dem candidate will be Gavin newsome

I really have hopes for Whitmer for a national office once she’s term limited here.

But only after she's term limited - we get to keep her until then, dammit!

Same. I don’t get my hopes up for anything in the realm of electoral politics but she seems to have done a good job.

I don't buy that a man with that concentration of used car salesman vibes can win a competitive primary.

I would hope you’re right but given the charisma machines that are the two current major party candidates I don’t really know what to think

Here's one from last week: bsky.app/profile/noel...

Michigan just passed a law dealing with surrogacy and assisted reproduction. Not a family law attorney, but among other things, I think this helps clear up some remaining issues that have come up for same sex couples with kids, e.g. birth certificates at the hospital.

House Bill 5207 of 2023 (Public Act 24 of 2024) - Michigan Legislaturewww.legislature.mi.gov

i feel really lucky to live in michigan these days. an amazing example of dems organizing to get some key measures on the ballot, and then taking the majority and running with it.

We've had a narrow Dem majority in population for a good while, and now thanks to the Non-partisan Redistricting Commission that's finally reflected as a narrow Dem majority in the legislature!

I checked and, unbelievably, you’re 100% right: this the only CNN story I could find on the topic. It’s fine, but gives no context for who is making taxpayer-funded lunch available to all. The word “Democrats” isn’t used once. It’s as if this happened by magic. www.cnn.com/2023/09/09/p...

States step in to pay for school meals for all kids | CNN Politicswww.cnn.com After the expiration of a federal program that provided funding for free meals for all students, nine states are picking up the tab for pupils’ breakfast and lunch.

Goose meme: Which state legislators, motherfuckers?!

I’m not a school debt historian but I don’t think the concept or at least the amounts existed ~20 years ago and likely do now owing to a series of decisions by people in positions of great consequence and yet I have not seen CNN report that as news either

CNN is owned by billionaires. A multi-trillion dollar tax break is a motive with a universal adapter for billionaires. Its not like they have to live in America. Its not like their kids have to live in America. Be trans in America. Get pregnant in America. Their privilege protects them.

I am guessing that 7 grand is a rounding error in that school district's overall budget, and yet they were refusing to feed CHILDREN because of it.

and simply retiring the debt, the kids still need to eat tomorrow. if they can’t afford lunch then…

tbf (?) a CNN story about the MA program would almost certainly be more enraging as they refused to say this obviously good program is good

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