Another Nightmarish Sign

In case anyone needed more evidence that a lot of Americans are going through desperate times, this article from today's Sacramento Bee provides plenty.

About 53.6 percent of Sacramento County's public school students received a subsidized lunch during the 2008-2009 year, up from exactly 50 percent the year before, according to a Bee analysis of recent California Department of Education data. That translates to an extra 5,000 Sacramento County kids taking a free or reduced-price lunch. ...

To get a free or reduced-price lunch, a family must be financially strapped. A household of four, for instance, cannot make more than $39,200 and still get a subsidy. [Emphasis added]

The figures for Sacramento match those of the state overall. During the 2007-08 school year, 3,118,053 California students or 50.9% of the school population received the subsidized lunch. During the 2008-09 school year, those figures jumped to 3,158,808 or 53.5%.

Two things leap out in these statistics. The first, of course, is that over 50% of the school age children in this state are poor enough to qualify for this program. The second is that this isn't a brand new phenomenon, one that is simply appeared with the change in administrations. It's at least two years old.

This program is about to be stressed further, however.

Most of the lunch costs are paid for by the federal government, but the state reimburses districts 22 cents for every $2.70 free meal. The state announced recently, however, that it dropped its contribution to 6 cents for April and June.

The move by the state comes in the wake of the disastrous budgetary problems California is going through. The school lunch program is one of those "unnecessary" expenses Gov. Schwarzenegger's staff identified, so the state funding has dropped by 70% and may in fact be zeroed out with the next rounds of cuts. That means the local districts have to come up the funds to pay the difference at a time when their own budgets have been slashed with the cuts they've faced from the state.

I'm sure some glib and golden-throated state legislator will find a silver lining in this nightmare, but I can't for the life of me figure out just what that might be.