During Test Week the Poor Kids Get Breakfast in Philly

In Philadelphia, the school CEOs (once known as principals), who report the system CEO (once known as superintendent), who report to another CEO who we once knew as mayor, are all in agreement that poor children should be given time to eat breakfast, at least during Test Week. The rest of the year, drill time (once known as school) is too important to give up for feeding the population (as they say in prison), even though a third of poor kids come to school hungry every day.

With the Dunc's pay-per-score plan financed and ready to "roll out," along with the accelerated conversion of poor schools into the "no excuses" charter chain gangs modeled on the KIPP brainwashing camps, we may expect that it will be more and more difficult for poor kids to get something to eat when they get to school--except, of course, during Test Week, when the staff's salaries for next year are being determined by children who are to be well fed for at least a week--unless, of course, the children are too nervous to keep down what they eat.

How many atrocities must be accumulated before the the American people say ENOUGH. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

By Alfred Lubrano

Inquirer Staff Writer

Students in Pennsylvania schools can eat breakfast in their first class of the day with a teacher present and it will be counted as instructional time, the Department of Education has announced.
The new ruling is important because many principals typically have resisted in-class breakfast service, saying it detracted from instructional time.

Numerous studies show that breakfast is vital to learning and that in-class service has proved the most effective means of getting children to eat the meal, said Leah Harris, a department spokeswoman.

Seizing on the change, Philadelphia advocates for the hungry say the city school district should mandate breakfast service during the first class every day.

"It should be required throughout the system," said Jonathan Stein, a lawyer with Community Legal Services long involved in school-meal programs. "And principals should be evaluated on whether they ensure children eat breakfast."

Referring to a district spokesperson's statement that principals are afforded a good deal of leeway and often resist in-class feeding as "kings of their fiefdoms," Stein added, "The days of laissez-faire should be history. More direction from the top is needed."

The Inquirer reported last week that principals typically push in-class food service during testing periods, when their performance is being judged. But during the rest of the year, they don't seem to make the same effort to ensure that children eat morning meals. . . .