Before I was governor of Minnesota, I was a high school social studies teacher and football coach for 20 years. Supervising the lunchroom was part of the job, and it wasn't unusual to see students go without lunch for days at a time. Of course, many of us teachers would help students cover the cost on our own dime, but if kids didn't have lunch money, you could bet they probably came to school without breakfast either.
Kids falling asleep in class, not engaging with the lesson, unable to participate or focus without food in their stomachs, failing their classes—this is what I saw all too often throughout my time in public schools. You can't learn trigonometry if you're focused on where your next meal is coming from.
Simply put, kids who are hungry don't learn well.
Not having the means to send their kids off to school with a good breakfast or lunch is the sad reality for far too many of our families across the country. And it impacts every part of our students' lives. It can negatively impact concentration, academic performance, behavior, and the overall health of our students.
The good news is that in Minnesota, we're doing something about it.
As kids, parents, and teachers prepare to head back to the classroom, they have one less thing to worry about. After signing the One Minnesota budget into law, our state's 600,000 students will have access to breakfast and lunch for free.
That means thousands of dollars back in the pockets of every single family sending their kid to school in Minnesota. We're ensuring every child has the tools they need to thrive in and out of the classroom, helping our students stay focused, and saving our hardworking families across the state both time and money.
I ran on a promise to continue making Minnesota the best state in the nation for kids to grow up in. This year, we did exactly that. Not only did we make universal breakfast and lunch a reality for 600,000 Minnesota public school students, but we made the largest investment in public education in state history, including key policies like expanding access to mental health resources and making affordable child care and pre-K a reality for thousands of kids. We also established a nation-leading Child Tax Credit that will cut child poverty in Minnesota by a third.
These kinds of investments make the difference in the lives of millions of families across our state, and give our kids the resources they need to succeed.
I'm proud to have colleagues across the country who took similar steps this legislative session to make school meals more affordable and accessible, including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
While Democratic governors are making bold moves to ensure students in our states have the tools they need to be successful in and outside of the classroom, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are focused on divisive culture wars that do nothing to address the real problems our country is facing.
While we're focused on banishing hunger with free breakfast and lunch and getting real results to improve public education, they're focused on banning books, bullying our LGBTQ students, and attacking teachers.
We can't let culture wars distract from harmful policies that have underfunded public schools for decades.
This kind of thinking only hurts our most vulnerable students and families, and something as straightforward as keeping our kids fed and making sure they can succeed in school should not be partisan.
As leaders, we should do everything we can to expand these kinds of programs to more students, not dismantle them.
I'm proud of the work we're doing in Minnesota to make sure our students have what they need to succeed, including access to breakfast and lunch, because no child in our country should be going hungry while they are trying to learn.
We're making big moves in Minnesota, and I hope other states across the country will stop with the culture wars and join us in working to fix the real challenges families are facing.
Tim Walz is the governor of Minnesota.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
