Monday, May 27, 2013

School Food Hides The REAL Issue

The Government announces a "food-in-schools" scheme tomorrow... with YOU paying a chunk of the bill!
What's more important:
THIS? Or feeding
the tamariki?

Prime Minister John Key says it targets the "most-in-need initially" and will involve the global milk giant Fonterra and Sanitarium (breakfast cereal manufacturer).
Johnno says that while most New Zealanders believe parents should provide breakfast for their children, this could leave some children out: "And that's right, it IS the parent's responsibility. But the issue is if the parent doesn't give the child some breakfast, then will they learn at school?" Key says it makes sense for a scheme to target the most-needy, and says it would start by targeting lower-decile schools. The govt already contributes cash to the fruit-in-schools programme, which delivers about 11 million pieces of fruit a year. So...
+Most NZers feel parents SHOULD feed their kids, that its their DUTY as caring adults to put food in their children's mouths.
+But because the "most-in-need" supposedly CAN'T fulfill their parental responsibilities, their kids go to school hungry, and their education suffers because they can't concentrate.
+Therefore WE, the taxpayers, end up paying to feed these children of inadequate parents.
To simplify a not-simple issue, assuming (and it's not at all in the realm of fantasy) that the majority of these families are of indigenous origin, then surely taxpayers have already paid, repeatedly, through endless Treaty of Waitangi settlements?
Does the educating of parents in the finer points of BEING parents, not fall under the Tiriti payments' raison d'etre?
"To hell with puha - I want KFC!"
Correct me if I'm wrong...but these full-and-final payments were meant for the betterment of those who claimed colonial victimisation. So where are the Tiriti-funded education and self-advancement programmes for the "most-in-need" - the ones to cover stopping drinking, smoking and gambling; the ones to teach budgeting, nutrition, child care; the ones to retrain and advance employment prospects? Why aren't they working? Isn't THIS the real issue?
As usual, mainstream NZ pays for the inadequacies of some who don't want to lift their game. And as always, children are the victims.

PS: 28 May 2013 - Here're the details: $9.5million from govt, matched by the corporates. So that's $19 MILLION to help ignore parental failures! Hone Harawira WILL be pleased...

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