Thread by @NPRCoryTurner

Thread from @NPR and @npr_ed ...

About the hundreds of thousands of kids who are going to lose access to a free school lunch.

2/ USDA wants to crack down on states being flexible with SNAP eligibility standards (SNAP = food stamps). @USDA chief Sonny Perdue says it's about "preventing abuse."

3/ The idea that "abuse" is rampant in SNAP is, well, rampant among folks backing this scaleback.

In '16, USDA itself reported:

$66.5 BIL in SNAP benefits
$592.7 MIL in fraud
That's a fraud rate < 1%
Receipts: bit.ly/37Lho2d

4/ But fraud (or no fraud) aside, this move wouldn't just push more than 3 MIL people off of SNAP...

It would have a huge impact on kids who eat free school lunches. Here's how...

5/ For starters, 40,000 kids would lose all access to free lunch. They'd go from eating for free to having to pay.

Receipts: bit.ly/2SEmaKG

6/ Several hundred thousand would go from free school lunch to a reduced-price lunch. Pay some, not all.

"That's $252," @FoodChoices4All told Congress, "an annual expense my already overwhelmed budget cannot absorb."

7/ At the same Oversight hearing, @SamAdolphsen told lawmakers, "in 34 states, not one single child will lose their school lunch eligibility as a result of this rule."

"Eligibility" is the key word here.

8/ "Eligibility" means...

Oh, dang. Gotta do a quick history lesson...

9/ Back in 2004, a bipartisan Congress (used to happen, I swear) was worried that low-income kids were missing out on free school lunches simply because families weren't filling out paperwork. Classic admin burden (I see you @pamela_herd). So they threw out the paperwork.

10/ Specifically, Congress told school districts:

If kids are already receiving food stamps, you must automatically sign 'em up for free school lunch.

The move connected SNAP and school lunch like...

11/ That's why this move to scale back SNAP winds up knocking kids out of the free lunch program. If they lose SNAP, they lose that automatic connection.

Like an administrative Rube Goldberg contraption...

12/ The kicker:

96% of the kids who are gonna lose this access are still eligible for a free or low-cost school lunch.

But now, to get it, they have to fill out paperwork.

USDA estimates it's as many as 942,000 kids.

13/ Child advocates are worried, big-time:

"Experience tells us that far too many will fall through the cracks," Lisa Davis @nokidhungry told lawmakers. "Confusion about eligibility, complex paperwork, human error and stigma all create barriers to enrollment."

14/ Other, collateral effects...

Schools that serve big groups of low-income kids can get govt. help giving free meals to all.

If this change pushes deserving kids off the lunch rolls, some schools could lose this "community eligibility."

Receipts: bit.ly/2T1b3dE

15/ And for you school funding nerds...

The U.S. govt. gives Title 1 dollars to low-income schools to help them cover their costs. These are a big deal.

Guess how they're doled out: Based on how many kids are in your free/low-cost lunch program.

16/ Or, in the words of @JohnBKing:

"If you have students leaving the free and reduced-price lunch program, who should be participating, you will underestimate the number of low-income students served in a school, and the school will therefore get less funding."

17/ And that's how cuts to a program over...

HERE...

Can lead to cuts in another program over...

HERE:

18/ The End

(And thank you for reading)

19/ Oh, and my full story, case you want to read even more:

buff.ly/326H5Js