Why Teachers Are Battling Against Free Breakfast in Their Classrooms

Principal Susan Lasken said her students have a hands-down favorite day of the week: Waffle Day.

That’s when nearly all 635 kids arrive at Sunnybrae Elementary School in Winnetka, California, promptly at 8 a.m. They are giddy and seemingly ravenous, ready to relish every bite of the golden discs slathered in warm syrup behind their desks.

“The kids just love it,” said Lasken, “On those days you can count on kids showing up on time.”

The popular breakfast is one of dozens of meals served through the Breakfast in the Classroom program, which uses the first 15 minutes of the school day to pump kids full of the healthy and nutritious calories they need to prep their brains for optimal learning.

Ample research shows students who participate in school breakfast programs have higher math scores than those who skip or rarely eat an early-morning meal. Absences and tardiness are also reduced when kids are fed at school.

While many of the country’s larger school districts already run similar programs—Baltimore, Houston, Chicago, San Diego—Los Angeles Unified School District recently expanded its Breakfast in the Classroom Program to a third of its campuses and now feeds nearly 200,000 children.

The boost in enrollment in the federally funded program is expected to add $6 million to L.A. Unified’s annual budget. A small percentage of that will be kicked back to each school without any strings attached. A delightful treat for cash-starved schools after several years of severe budget cuts.

And yet the program has come under sharp criticism from teachers and administrators. In an online survey conducted by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), 51 percent of teachers said they disliked the program and want to put an end to it.

Many are now asking, are full stomachs worth the tradeoffs?

The greatest concern is the loss of instructional time. District heads say the entire process of distributing the food, eating the meal, and cleaning up should take no more than 15 minutes a day. But teachers argue wrangling students can take up to 45 minutes, especially with kindergarteners and first graders.

UTLA President Warren Fletcher said teachers, whose job performance relies on improving test scores, simply can’t afford to lose that time.

Even if [Breakfast in the Classroom] is limited to 15 minutes, that is 1 hour and 15 minutes per week, or 2,700 minutes (almost eight entire school days) per year!

Fliers distributed by UTLA to parents broke down the math:

“Even if [Breakfast in the Classroom] is limited to 15 minutes, that is 1 hour and 15 minutes per week, or 2,700 minutes (almost eight entire school days) per year! That is 45 hours of instructional time per year that your child has lost!”

“It’s an unfortunate situation and I’m really torn about it,” said Lasken. She’s grateful students at Sunnybrae Elementary—all of whom qualify for free lunch—are getting an extra meal, but there’s no way to skirt the issue that it’s an added pressure on teachers.

“They don’t love it,” she said.

Half of the staff has complained about the time it steals from their prep time before school starts and the strain it puts on rushing through the day’s lesson plans.

“Contractually, I can’t give them more time. I’d have to pay them out of my own pocket if I wanted to make the day longer.”

Lasken said parent volunteers have been key to getting the routine down to a solid 20 minutes a day. She considers that a victory.  

Another major problem is cleanliness in the classroom.

Anne Zerrien-Lee, a teacher at Esperanza Elementary School, responded to UTLA’s survey in an online video. In it she said cereal day is the worst. Cleanup involves pouring leftover milk into the classroom sink and making sure no “milk-crud” or cereal “slush” clogs the drain because that can take weeks to fix.

Juice and milk are consistently spilled on floors that are rarely mopped, and forgotten crumbs attract pests. An anonymous respondent to the survey said, “We live with a week’s worth of crumbs and a year’s worth of tracked through liquid.” Another added, “The classroom is not the appropriate place for children to have breakfast.”

Lastly, there’s the issue of food quality.

The waffles that are such a hit are high in sugar and carbohydrates. Not exactly “brain” food.

Research published in Physiology and Behavior found students who eat breakfasts containing a balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrates have an improved attention span and memory, and they experience fewer signs of frustration while working on school tasks. Meanwhile, those who consume a high-glycemic diet tend to crash after a few hours.

Proponents of the Breakfast in the Classroom program contend all meals adhere to the guidelines set out by the Obama administration’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, a $4.5 billion initiative passed in 2010 to improve the nutritional value of school meals.

Nicola Edwards is a nutrition specialist with the California Food Policy Advocates, a nonprofit group that helps implement the breakfast program. Edwards said most school districts are going “above and beyond USDA standards.”

She adds that L.A. Unified has some of the most stringent standards in the country. The district posts nutritional information for all of its school menus online for anyone to access.

“All of the products are whole grain—even the waffles. The pancakes are made from sweet potatoes and they’ve done a lot to reduce the sugar in the food,” she said. “And meals are high in protein.” A recent focus group ranked the egg and cheese burrito among student favorites.

Edwards admits the breakfast program is flawed, but she’s convinced they’re only growing pains. “There’s no doubt that this program works, and it’s good for the kids and good for test scores.”

A number of impending changes should help streamline the program, she said. The district plans to provide teachers with more cleaning supplies, wet-naps will be added to meals, and the dreaded Cereal Day will be eliminated completely in the near future.

Plans to cut down on waste are also in the pipeline. Foods unpopular with kids, such as a breakfast bar with a strong taste of cumin, are being rotated out. Parents are now told not to feed children at home.

Last week, controversy over the program’s future lead to a rally outside of Hooper Elementary, a South Los Angeles school where 100 percent of students qualify for free lunch. More than 100 parents and cafeteria workers asked teachers to reverse their position before the school board votes on whether to continue serving breakfast in the classroom. The board will take on the controversial issue on May 14.

A majority of the seven school board members have said they support the program, but if it is eliminated, schools will go back to providing free breakfast in the cafeteria. The impact of the reversal would be twofold, according to district officials.

First, participation in the breakfast program would likely drop to previous levels, below 30 percent. That means most kids would go through the first part of the day hungry. And, second, the district will lose out on millions of federal dollars. Projections based on student enrollment estimate L.A. Unified will receive $20 million a year once the program is expanded through all grade levels.

UTLA President Warren Fletcher assured them, teachers want to compromise. “These problems can and must be overcome so students get a nutritional breakfast and a full instructional day. It is not an either/or for children.” 

Related Stories on TakePart:

• The School Breakfast Debate Rages on Despite the Number of Kids Coming to Class Hungry

• 100 Days of Real Food: How to Pack a Healthy School Lunch

• Is It Time We Threw Standardized Testing Out the Door?

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Vanessa Romo is a Los Angeles-based journalist and public radio reporter. Her work has aired on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Marketplace.  @vanromo | TakePart.com

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Cuba to hand over U.S. couple accused of snatching their sons

By Jeff Franks

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Tuesday said an American accused of kidnapping his two young sons in Florida and fleeing with them by boat to the communist-led island would be turned over to U.S. authorities.

The foreign ministry announced the decision in a terse statement saying Joshua Michael Hakken, a fugitive from U.S. justice, would be handed over with wife Sharyn and their children.

Hakken had surfaced in Cuba on Tuesday and was holed up with his family at the Hemingway Marina near Havana.

Reuters and other media outlets had attempted to speak with Hakken when he appeared briefly before reporters to stow away gear and secure the hatch on a small blue and white sailboat named Salty at the marina.

But Hakken, a stocky man who was bearded and wearing shorts and a dark green baseball cap, shook his head 'no' when asked if would answer any questions.

He then disappeared into a nearby building which was roped off and plainclothes security guards equipped with walkie-talkies at the marina prevented journalists from asking any further questions.

The foreign ministry said Hakken had arrived at the marina on Sunday afternoon.

A State Department official said earlier that the United States was receiving "very good cooperation from the Cuban authorities" in the Hakken case and was providing "all appropriate assistance to the family."

Washington and Havana have no extradition agreement and tensions flared between the two Cold War enemies during the Elian Gonzalez child custody battle more than a decade ago. But there were few if any parallels between the Hakken case and Gonzalez saga, which involved a boy plucked from an inner tube off Florida after his mother and others drowned while fleeing Cuba. He was ultimately returned to his father in Cuba.

Hakken, who is wanted on two counts of kidnapping and other charges including interference with child custody, is accused of breaking into his mother-in-law's home north of Tampa, Florida, last Wednesday and tying her up with zip ties. He then fled with his sons, 4-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.

Hours later, Hakken, his wife, and the children left from a dock in Madeira Beach, Florida, aboard the Salty, their recently purchased 25-foot (7.6-meter) sailboat, investigators said.

Hakken knew long before he went to his mother-in-law's home that he and his wife had lost custody of the children, authorities said.

The boys wound up with their maternal grandmother after the Hakkens attended an "anti-government" rally in June in Louisiana, where police said they found Hakken in the family's hotel room with a gun, marijuana and knife, talking about a "journey to Armageddon," according to the Tampa Times newspaper.

Hakken was charged with marijuana possession and the boys were placed in a foster home, where Hakken later showed up armed with a gun, the Times quoted authorities as saying.

Louisiana officials then sent the boys to live in Tampa with their maternal grandmother Patricia Hauser.

Warrants issued in Hillsborough County, in addition to kidnapping and interfering with child custody, charges of child neglect, false imprisonment, burglary with battery and stealing Hauser's car.

(Additional reporting by Saundra Amrhein in Tampa; Editing by Tom Brown and Eric Walsh)

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If Teachers Works at Low-Income Schools, Should Their College Debt Be Forgiven?

Recruiting strong educators to teach at low-income schools in urban and rural areas is not always easy. The stress and commitment can be daunting for some teachers, especially ones who've only been in the profession for a few years.

A bill currently on the desk of New Mexico Governor Susan Martinez could give teachers that extra push.

Sponsored by Albuquerque Representative Sheryl Williams Stapleton, the bill would help teachers pay off students loans if they work in schools with low-income students or where student perform poorly on state tests.

It is not clear if Martinez, a Republican, will sign the Democrat-sponsored bill. In 2011, she vetoed the bill, also sponsored by Stapleton.

 

 

Many educators and organizations say such bills are needed in the United States

“While the Association of American Educators hasn’t directly surveyed members on this specific policy, our teachers are in agreement that we must find innovative ways to attract effective teachers to the profession,” Gary Beckner, executive director of the Association of American Educators, told TakePart.

Beckner said that according to the group’s National Member Surveys, more than 80 percent of teachers support educators being paid more for taking on additional roles and responsibilities in their schools. He said 79 percent supported educators being paid more to teach in high-need schools.

“This bill speaks to the heart of this issue and would provide teachers with incentives to fill high-need positions,” he said.

West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, a Republican, recently signed legislation on a comprehensive education package, which included loan forgiveness to teachers willing to teach in critical need areas. While many West Virginia education groups were against many components of the package, they did praise Tomblin’s initiative with teachers and loans.

“His loan forgiveness program will help us bring new, young teachers into areas of critical needs and shortage areas,” Judy Hale, president of the American Federation of Teachers – West Virginia, told local media. 

In Louisiana’s Lafayette Parish, education officials are recruiting nurses who excel in math and science to become school teachers. In June, the University Medical Center employees will be laid off after a partnership with another hospital begins.

Nurses with a bachelor’s degree can become classroom teachers within a year through an accelerated alternative certification program developed by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. They are encouraged to take out Perkins loans, a federal program that forgives debt if teachers work at high-poverty schools for at least five years.

South Carolina, too, is looking at ways to attract teachers to poor schools. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has proposed expanding the state’s Teach for America program, but some are criticizing that proposal. Critics say Walker should hire in-state teachers instead of inviting out-of-state teachers to Wisconsin.

For all the debate, the National Education Association warns that while attracting good teachers to high-needs schools is much needed, so is the ability to retain them.

“While NEA supports incentives and programs to attract talented educators to high-needs schools such as loan forgiveness and scholarships, we must also focus on providing a stable workforce,” Segun Eubanks, director of Teacher Quality at the National Education Association told TakePart. “According to the most recent Metlife Survey, maintaining an adequate supply of effective teachers is more difficult in high-needs schools than in other schools.”

Eubanks said that teachers entering high-needs schools need “special preparation for teaching, support from more experienced colleagues, and programs that offer opportunities for knowing students better—such as flexible schedules and advisory classes.”

Related Stories on TakePart:

• 8 Ways to Keep Your Student Loan Debt From Crushing You

• If You Can’t Pay Off Your Student Loans, Your College May Sue You

• Student Loan Crisis: How We Got Into This Mess

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Suzi Parker is an Arkansas-based political and cultural journalist whose work frequently appears in The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor. She is the author of two books. @SuziParker | TakePart.com 

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Their words: Soldiers' tales of the Iraq War

Robert W. Philbrook passes out toothbrushes and toothpaste to Iraqi children in Baghdad in May 2005. Boy Scouts from the United States shipped him hundreds of kits to distribute in an act of goodwill. (Photo courtesy of Robert W. Philbrook)

Robert W. Philbrook grew up playing war.

As a boy, it seemed simple: In games of hide-and-seek, he and his friends sneaked between buildings, guarded their “forts"—and shot the “bad guys” before they shot back.

Years later, Philbrook enlisted with the California Army National Guard. He deployed to Iraq a few months after the Sept. 11 attacks and, shortly before he left, a question from his then-6-year-old son stripped bare the reality of war. In Philbrook’s words:

Sitting in the car that day, he looked at me and said, "Can I ask you a question, Daddy?"

I told my son, yes, he could ask me anything. After a moment, he said: "You said you might have to kill someone in the war, right?"

I nodded and said to him that is what soldiers sometimes have to do.

He looked at me with his big blue eyes and muttered, "Will any of them be a daddy like you?"

His question was devastating. I didn't know how to tell him that the answer could well be "yes." I thought for a moment and then reminded him about Mom and Dad's rule [that] he and his brothers shouldn't be mean to each other and that Daddy didn't like it when they fought over toys. I told him I was going to Iraq to try to keep the Iraqis from fighting and being mean to each other and doing bad things. That if they listened and got along, I could come home soon. But if they didn't, I was going to have to fight them until they stopped. This seemed to make some sense to him, but to this day his question haunts me.

While he was in Iraq, Philbrook said, his wife and three sons (ages 13, 6 and 4 in 2004, when he deployed) dominated his thoughts, so much so that he kept a detailed journal of his time in case he didn't return home.

Returning home in January 2006, Sgt. Philbrook is welcomed by his family and the children of his sons' school. Many of the school children had sent letters of encouragement and thanks, along with photos, throughout the year. (Photo courtesy of Robert W. Philbrook)

“If I was to die overseas, I wanted them to know someday why their father left them to fight an often unpopular war and about my role and experiences during it,” Philbrook wrote in a first-person account for Yahoo News this week. “I didn't want the media, the military, or anyone else, for that matter, speaking for me or writing my history of that conflict.”

He also prayed: "Don't let me get any of my fellow soldiers killed, don't let me kill anyone who doesn't have it coming and get me back home to my wife and children."

He said he was successful on the first two counts. “God did his part on the last,” he said.

Philbrook’s story is one of dozens that Iraq War veterans and their families shared with Yahoo News this month, the 10-year anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The perspectives were diverse, ranging from baby-faced Army privates serving straight out of high school to veterans who re-enlisted because of 9/11. Many said they believe history will judge the United States justly for its role in shaping Iraq’s future; others offered a more fatalistic view and said the campaign was doomed from the start.

By the time the war ended on Dec. 15, 2011, 4,409 Americans were killed in Iraq and 31,926 more wounded in action. (The number of Iraqi deaths are estimated at 122,000 through today.) Behind those numbers lie personal stories of service members and their families. We’ve shared a few more of them below. If you served in Iraq, or have family who did, and are interested in writing your story, learn more here.

Frank Coots before a mission. (Photo courtesy of Frank Coots)

Making a difference, but paying a steep price

It took a while for the war to sink in for Frank Coots.

“Nothing can really prepare you mentally for being in a war zone,” the sergeant in the Indiana Army National Guard wrote in his account.

The Iraq War seemed harmless, Coots said, until bullets riddled his Humvee on his first convoy-security mission. Then came the IEDs. It was 2008, and insurgents were repeatedly using the roadside bombs to derail U.S. operations.

“It got real pretty fast,” he said.

Coots, who was a specialist, deployed to Mosul in northern Iraq and guarded convoys of food, supplies, mail, water and fuel. These missions, he said, showed him how far Iraq had transformed after Saddam Hussein’s fall. He watched the progress of the U.S. military training Iraqi army and police forces. He noted how Americans turned over the security of roadside checkpoints to Iraqis. He listened to his Kurdish interpreter, whose family was executed by Saddam’s troops, extol U.S. efforts at freeing his people from tyranny.

“It was a time when I really felt I was making a difference and doing a good thing for others,” he said.

But he paid a personal price.

“Coming home and returning to civilian life was a challenge, to say the least,” Coots said. “It's hard to go from serving your country in a war zone to making $11.75 an hour in a Vincennes, Ind., auto parts store. It's hard to get used to not grabbing a rifle and pulling security every time you're startled by a loud noise. It's hard to understand why everything seems so different, even when you realize the concussions and head traumas caused by explosions has altered the way your brain works. It's hard to go in a restaurant or bar and not sit with your back in a corner and consider everyone a possible enemy.”

Coots, 32, who moved on to being a tractor mechanic at a John Deere dealership in Vincennes is engaged to a woman he described as “wonderful, supportive, patient,” and who helps him through his post-traumatic stress disorder. With assistance from the Veterans Administration, he’s returning to what he calls “normal life.”

But his thoughts still turn to Iraq. He wonders whether Iraqis are ready to govern. He worries insurgents will rise again. He fears American sacrifices may be moot if violence returns.

“I very much hope I'm proven wrong about this,” Coots said.

Brittney Linville in Iraq. (Photo courtesy of Brittney Linville)

‘What doesn't kill you makes you walk with a limp’

If not for war’s most devastating and rewarding outcomes, said Brittney Linville, she wouldn’t be the same today.

Now a mom to a 6-year-old girl and wife to a fellow Army veteran, Linville entered basic training at 18 in January 2003 and quickly saw combat. She served in Baqouba, Iraq, as a military police soldier and found herself thrust into the worst parts of the war.

“While many don't think that females see combat, I have pulled security for more raids than I can count, have lived through countless mortar attacks on the base in which I lived, and faced the roads of Iraq never knowing if it might be the last one that I would travel down,” she wrote in her story. “I have faced days without sleep, weeks without a shower, and months without knowing if I would ever see home again.”

But without that adversity, she said, she couldn’t measure what she’d gained. She described herself as being immature and selfish before she served, but said Iraq changed that. “It was a time in my life when I quickly learned that I was more capable than I had imagined.”

She also met her husband, Matthew Linville, in Iraq. They married, and she transitioned out of the service. But Matthew was deployed again, and this time and IED blast sent shrapnel tunneling through his leg, lodging a hunk of metal behind his left knee.

“That day that he was injured was the worst day of our lives. We have faced our challenges since that day, but it made our bond stronger,” she said.

With a severed nerve, Matthew is permanently injured and needs a brace to walk. Brittney battles PTSD daily.

Still, she said, she chooses "to be stronger than PTSD and that serves as my motivation."

Her husband coined a phrase: "What doesn't kill you makes you walk with a limp.”

“Iraq might have been tough," Brittney added, “and left its lingering effects, but it will not hold us back or prevent us from accomplishing anything.”

Read more veterans' accounts and perspectives about their service in Iraq.

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The seven creepiest teachers who allegedly banged or inappropriately touched their students this week [SLIDESHOW]

(Recasts, adds witness and driver quotes, details) Feb 23 (Reuters) - A fiery pile-up at the Daytona speedway on Saturday injured at least 28 fans and a driver after the 10-car crash sent car debris, including a tire, flying into the crowd in the final lap of the Nationwide NASCAR race. Race officials said 14 fans were sent to nearby hospitals and another 14 were treated at the Florida track, which will host the prestigious Daytona 500 race on Sunday. "Stuff was flying everywhere," spectator Terry Huckaby, whose brother was sent to the hospital with a leg injury, told the ESPN sports network. ...

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Guess how much Americans spent on their pets last year

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The economy may have remained sluggish last year but Americans refused to scrimp on their pets, with animal lovers spending upwards of $53 billion on food, veterinary care, kennels and other services in 2012.

That's up 5 percent from 2011, when spending first broke the $50 billion barrier, says the American Pet Products Association, a trade group based in Greenwich, Conn. And APPA President and CEO Bob Vetere predicts another 4 percent gain this year.

At about $34.3 billion, food and vet care represented about two-thirds of total spending, with money spent on supplies and over-the-counter medications rising by more than 7 percent. Spending on the growing market of alternative vet care, such as acupuncture, totaled about $12.5 billion.

Vetere says spending on services like grooming, boarding, hotels and pet-sitting grew nearly 10 percent during 2012 to almost $4.4 billion.

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