The state of Delaware’s budget has gone from $1 billion in 2001 to $3.63 billion in 2009 to $4.4 billion in 2020 to $6.5 billion in 2025. No, I do not think any free meals should be given to students who can afford to pay for them (“Universal free school breakfast is coming to Delaware schools”). If a child’s parents cannot afford to pay for this food, that was what the free-and-reduced meal program was for. This has existed for decades. No one was to know who was in the program except the cafeteria manager.
Retired taxpayers do not have a bottomless pit of money to pay for the Democrat-run state’s whim spending. Get Delaware’s budget under control.
If someone’s household budget was being run like the state’s, he or she would declare bankruptcy and be living on the street.
There are places to cut, like the more than $100 million a year given to the University of Delaware for its operating budget, when 25% of its students come from Delaware, and the rest are from other states. The out-of-state students pay more, so they get the nod over in-state applicants, who may then attend Delaware Technical Community College.
The comments from the university have been that Delaware students aren’t academically prepared for entrance to UD. Well, the school educates individuals who student-teach in Delaware schools, and some remain here to teach. They must not be very good teachers, if they are not preparing their students for college. Also, UD sits in the middle of the Christina School District. Why isn’t the university doing something to better prepare Delaware students for college?
Improve the quality of K-12 education before you give out free meals to students whose parents can afford to pay.
Deirdre Taylor
Newark
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