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| Free for the kids $1.75 adults! |
After receipt of an e-mail from Portland Schools informing me that West Sylvan School would be providing $1.75 breakfasts to non-needy adults –including, of course, non-needy teachers, administrators, and other education staff or bureaucrats – and $1 breakfasts to non-needy students, and not just free breakfasts to needy kids, I wrote an objection on Victoria Taft’s Blog to this breakfast give-away to the non-needy by the liberal progressives running Portland Schools—the same liberal progressives who want citizens to go into further debt by voting for a $548-million bond issue come May.
Among other things, I pointed out that aside from cavalierly spending taxpayer funds to subsidize breakfasts for non-needy adults, the invitation –“Come hungry! – on its face, had no limitation whatsoever as to who or which adults were to enjoy these taxpayer-subsidized breakfasts in taxpayer-paid schools
In response to the post on Victoria Taft’s Blog, the Oregonian, ever willing to cover up or gloss over the arrogant misuse of public funds by their-fellow liberal progressives in the Education Establishment, liberal “good intentions” excusing a myriad of wrongs, on Sunday, Dec. 26, 2010, published a “PolitiFact” column headlined “Take school breakfast rant (sic) with a grain of salt,” written by Janie Har, rating my “rant” to be “Barely True,” while, in fact, proving in the body of the report, evidence that everything I wrote on Victoria Taft’s blog is true.
First, it is absolutely and indisputably true that the Portland Schools in fact is providing, commencing on Jan. 3, 2011, as set forth in the Portland Schools invitation (see below), breakfasts for non-needy adults at $1.75, and at $1 for non-needy students.
Second, it is absolutely true that Portland Public Schools announcement and invitation contains absolutely no limitation as to which adults are going to receive the benefit of this new taxpayer-subsidized “breakfast” benefit. Here it is in its entirety, as originally published on the Victoria Taft Blog.
“Dear West Sylvan parents and staff,“Starting January 3rd, 2011, we will be serving a hot and cold breakfast in the hallway outside of the cafeteria at 8:30 am every Monday, as well as days when there is no break. Please visit Ana, the kitchen lead, in the hall to pick up your delicious and nutritious breakfast. We will continue to offer cold breakfast during your normal breakfast time at 8:30 am and hot breakfast at your normal scheduled break at 10:35 am Tuesday through Friday. Breakfast is only $1.00 for students, $1.75 for adults and free for all students on reduced or free priced meals. Your breakfast will meet 1/4 of the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for children for many vitamins and nutrients and will include a juice, milk and entree, so come hungry! Please remember you can put money on your child’s account at mylunchmoney.com or bring a check or cash to the cafeteria.” [Boldface emphasis supplied.]
It is signed by Kristin Palmer, RD, Program Manager, Portland Public Schools Nutrition Services, Office: 503.916.3572 I Cell: 971.227.3463 kpalmer@pps.k12.or.us., and forwarded by Cate Boyce, Principal.
I respectfully suggest there is nothing whatsoever in this notice to advise taxpayers that some adults will receive the cheap breakfast benefit, and others will not. That could very well be because I do not believe that the Public School Progressive Bureaucrats can, legally, pick and choose which non-needy adults can receive the benefit of taxpayer-subsidized breakfasts in city schools.
As to what the notice states, I am a lawyer (forgive me that). Every court or administrative adjudicative body in the nation determines what a document means by what it states, i.e., the words of the document. It’s called the “Best Evidence Rule,” i.e., a document speaks for itself. An attempt to testify what the person who wrote it may have intended it to mean but didn’t include in the document, is irrelevant. But that non-evidence is what the Oregonian relies on to attempt to persuade the public that the Portland Schools taxpayer-subsidized give-away breakfast program for non-needy adults and students which the Victoria Taft Blog is not open to all non-needy adults who may want a cheap taxpayer-subsidized breakfast.
Alas, it is absolutely true, not barely true, that the invitation to $1.75 taxpayer-subsidized breakfasts for non-needy adults inside a public school does not have, on its face, any limitation on what adults are to receive that generous government benefit. Period. The Oregonian, and Janie Har, want to gloss that by asserting it was addressed only to West Sylvan teachers, administrators, staff, students, and their parents. Really? Where in the body of the invitation does it say that only those persons, among all adults, are to receive this government benefit? It doesn’t.
Further, how can the Portland Schools decide they will provide this benefit to one group of citizens (or non-citizens) at one school (if that is what is happening), and not all schools? Will the Albina Ministerial Alliance be pleased to learn they aren’t going to be eating $1.76 breakfasts while the Mercedes-Audi-Beamer-driving parents of West Sylvan students will?
Why are non-needy kids at West Sylvan going to get “$1” breakfasts, and not all non-needy kids?
I asked Oregonian reporter Janie Har to ask the Portland Schools just what statutory or constitutional authority exists to legally support the provision of $1.75 breakfasts to non-needy adults and $1 breakfasts to non-needy students. The Oregonian’s “Not Even Barely True” purported “PolitiFact” by Janie Har doesn’t even mention this very critical issue. There may be a good reason for the silence of the Oregonian and the Portland Schools on this issue: There is no statutory authority of which I am aware for the Portland Schools to provide taxpayer-subsidized meals to non-needy adults in Portland schools.
Even if there was such legal authority, it could not authorize the provision of such a benefit to some adults, and not others.
In short, taxpayer-subsidized schools should not be advertising to non-needy parents or any adults to “Come hungry!” for taxpayer-subsidized breakfasts, lunches, or dinners, in school facilities paid for by taxpayers. Exposed as the folly that it is, the Portland Schools should rescind it. That’s what I told the Oregonian, and that’s what it should have said, instead of trying to find a way to justify their co-liberal progressives in the Portland Schools bureaucracy.
Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com
