“…DeLauro and many of her Democratic colleagues will have to swallow hard as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gathers her troops Tuesday for a rare mid-August session to pass a $26.1 billion state aid spending package that cuts billions of dollars from food stamps to save thousands of teachers’ jobs and to stave off cuts in Medicaid.
The anti-hunger community is finding the decision even harder to digest.
“We call it the big disaster. It was just so shocking that they would take money from the food stamp program in these economic times to support any other program,” said Carey Morgan, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. “We’re not saying that education and medical [aid] aren’t important, but hungry kids can’t learn and hungry kids get sick.”
What the NEA just emailed to me.
“This is a victory for students and educators across the country,” said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. “With this vote, the House reaffirmed that the road to economic security and prosperity runs directly through our nation’s schools. As a result, we expect to see fewer crowded classrooms, reinstated bus routes and fewer cuts to education programs and services.”
