Michelle Schroeder, public policy director for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, told a state legislative committee Monday that a new food stamp policy that kicked about 2,000 children off the rolls is “fairer than the previous policy.”
Excuse me, but a policy that leaves kids hungry is neither fair nor acceptable.
This isn’t a complicated matter. Because it could, the state changed the way eligibility for food stamps would be determined. Any illegal immigrants in the family would be counted out; become a zero. A family of five, three kids and two parents, would become a family of three if the parents didn’t have papers under the new rules.
Food stamp eligibility is determined by a formula that divides the family income by the number of family members. The fewer members, the higher the per capita income. Food stamp eligibility shrinks and then disappears as income per person rises.
Re-jiggering the family count in which illegals were involved left 2,000 kids without food aid.
How this could be seen as anything but bad public policy escapes me. It should be rethought and redone. The starting point should be: in Kansas, hungry children get fed. All children.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
