Rep. Kingston Proposes Poor Students Should Work In Exchange For Free Lunch

Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston believes children who receive a free lunch at school should have to work for it. He reasons that no child should learn early in life that there is “no such thing as a free ride.” On “NewsOne Now,” Horace Cooper agrees that activities, such as sweeping floors, should be instituted. He believes that it will teach them how to be a better citizen in the community.

Cooper, who is co-chairman of the Project 21 National Advisory Board, says it is an investment toward their education and how they will behave as an adult. “We’re not talking about a give-to-get situation,” he said. “We’re talking about an investment in our young people which we’re always saying that we want to do.”

Other people disagree and believe that if children have to work for their free lunch, it will bring a stigma and shame to them because they cannot afford something that is a basic right. “It’s rooted in a set of values that doesn’t treat things like being able to eat or get a proper education as human rights,” said attorney Patrice A. Sulton, “and, of course, being able to have a proper meal at a time you get your education is something to which people are entitled, not something that children who aren’t yet of age to make the sorts of decisions that would help them provide for themselves.”

Watch the heated debate below.