Even in America, there are children who only eat decent meals at school through their free or reduced lunch programs. Inflation has likely made things even worse.
Unfortunately, forcing its radical gender theory on everyone, the Biden administration is asking nonprofit private schools to trade their values for literal lunch money. This scandal recently played out in a low-income community in Tampa, Florida. Children who attend Grant Park Christian Academy do so by receiving financial assistance from scholarship organizations. They also receive free meals from the school’s lunch program. The school receives funding to pay for these lunches from the Department of Agriculture through the National School Lunch Program, which Commissioner Nikki Fried operates.
Because of its Christian basis, Grant Park Christian Academy does not agree with the Biden administration’s redefinition of Title IX to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Now, even private, religious schools must forbid sex-specific restrooms or dress codes. If they refuse, they are at risk of losing access to funding that makes children’s lunches possible.
Fried’s office told the school that it either had to “comply with all federal program regulations” or lose funding through the National School Lunch Program.
With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, the school filed a lawsuit against Fried and President Joe Biden.
The school also applied for an exemption to Biden’s program. Despite Fried’s warnings, state and federal government officials stated they would approve the exemption and application for funding for the 2022-2023 school year, which started just days ago. It’s not clear if they were motivated to approve the exemption due to the lawsuit, which alleged the Biden administration’s new rules discriminate against religion, but it sure seems like it.
The Biden administration seems to have forgotten that banishing sex-specific restrooms might seem inclusive to a handful of children while discriminating against dozens more. But until the private sector can churn out something akin to the National Lunch Program, which helps so many children, that responsibility remains relegated to the federal government. A government must remain fair and unbiased.
With the cost of food rising, forcing schools to adhere to an ideology that flies in the face of their values is discriminatory. It hurts children. Shame on the Biden administration for threatening to withhold lunch money in exchange for fealty to its gender orthodoxy.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She is an opinion columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
