Funding concerns for free school meals program
(COLORADO SPRINGS) — With the help of a statewide ballot measure, District 11 in Colorado Springs has been offering all students free meals since 2023.
Their Food Services Director Janine Russell, says the average number of meals they serve each day has seen a huge increase since starting the program. However, she also says it has a statewide funding problem for the 2025-26 school year.
'It just shows that families are taking advantage of the program,' said Russell, 'and that's the problem now for next year… because so many school districts took advantage of this wonderful program, more than (the legislature) anticipated,' said Russell.
Although the three faith based schools in the district are not included in the free meals for all program, she says it's extremely helpful for many families.
'They can save that lunch money, that breakfast money, and use it to (meet) the needs of the family. Whatever that may be,' said Russell.
Families no longer have to provide their income to access the free meals. She says that's helpful for the parents who made over the old threshold, but needed the money for other things like medical bills. However, D-11 is still asking parents to provide their income information, to help them get state and federal funding for student resources.
However, the program was so popular, D-11 says there was not enough tax income to cover it.
'I don't have any confidence in saying what it's going to look like (next year). I do know that the legislatures are actively trying to figure out a solution,' said Russell, 'I sincerely hope we know something come April, May… because I need to do a budget for next year, and that budget process is like right now.'
She says parents can fill out the Family Economic Data Survey now, to get help with school meals next year just incase.
'If you got qualified for technically free or reduced meals now, you would have those at the beginning of the school year,' said Russell, 'instead of, 'oh my gosh, I got to hurry up and get the paperwork filled out so that my child can have a free or reduced meal'.'
If the funding isn't straightened out in time, she says they'd go back to the sliding scale program. In that program, students can qualify for free or reduced prices based on their household income.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Reporter hit as LA officers fire rubber bullets at protesters
An Australian news correspondent was hit as Los Angeles police fired rubber bullets Sunday as tensions with immigration raid protesters escalated. 'After hours of standing off, this situation has now rapidly deteriorated,' Lauren Tomasi, the U.S. correspondent for Australia's 9News, said in a live report from downtown Los Angeles shortly before she was hit. 'The LAPD moving in on horseback, firing rubber bullets at protesters, moving them on through the heart of LA,' she continued. Moments later, Tomasi audibly exclaimed as she grabbed her calf, apparently in pain, as the camera panned away from the incident. 'You just f‑‑‑ing shot the reporter,' an individual was heard saying off camera. Another individual asked Tomasi if she was OK, and she said, 'I'm good.' Tomasi returned to her reporting spot hours later, and a 9News anchor in Australia asked the U.S.-based correspondent for an update on her condition. 'I'm OK. My cameraman Jimmy and I are both safe. This is just one of the unfortunate realities of reporting on these kinds of incidents. It has been a really volatile day on the streets of Los Angeles,' Tomasi said, before reporting that downtown Los Angeles had mostly cleared out by nightfall. 9News issued a similar statement after the incident. 'Lauren Tomasi was struck by a rubber bullet. Lauren and her camera operator are safe and will continue their essential work covering these events,' the statement read, according to the outlet's reporting of the incident. 'This incident serves as a stark reminder of the inherent dangers journalists can face while reporting from the frontlines of protests, underscoring the importance of their role in providing vital information,' the statement continued. A British news photographer, Nick Stern, was also struck while reporting on the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles over the weekend, according to numerous British outlets. He is now recovering from emergency surgery. 'My initial concern was, were they firing live rounds?' Stern told a news agency, noting he was struck by a 14 mm 'sponge bullet' in his thigh. 'Some of the protesters came and helped me, and they ended up carrying me, and I noticed that there was blood pouring down my leg,' he added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Opinion - Trump and Vance are hanging out with conspiracy theorists and kooks
President Lincoln had a team of rivals. President Trump has a team of conspiracy mongers. Do you remember when Republicans raised holy hell about the people around President Obama? They obsessed over Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, who made inflammatory statements about race. How many conservative media segments fixated on Bill Ayers, formerly of the Weather Underground, claiming Obama 'kicked off his political career in the guy's living room?' In today's Trump-led Republican Party, there is a far more alarming cast of characters firmly in the mainstream of Trump's power. Here is a look at the views of some eye-opening players exercising actual power and making actual policy in the Trump administration. Elon Musk: Last week, Musk's alliance with Trump blew up in a memorable episode of social media back-stabbing worthy of a reality television show. The clash left them both bloodied. But before the personal drama, Musk left a trail of human wounds, fear and confusion with his erratic, reckless firing of tens of thousands of federal workers as well as devil-may-care spending cuts throughout the federal government. And according to the New York Times, Musk was regularly taking drugs during last year's campaign, in which he was the president's top donor. This led one Democratic lawmaker to question whether Musk was regularly taking drugs as a special government employee this year. Trump allowed the unelected Musk to swing a metaphorical chainsaw — he actually did wield a literal one on stage — at government agencies and their workers. Some of those cuts, particularly to the U.S. Agency for International Development, have canceled vital medical treatment, resulting in needless suffering and death. Now, Trump is attacking Musk for condemning his tax and spending bill. Somehow, there is no condemnation of Trump for granting Musk's team access to private information about Americans from government computers. Imagine the explosion in the right-wing echo chamber if Rev. Wright had done anything close to that in the Obama years. Laura Loomer: Last week, the conspiracy theorist and proud podcasting provocateur was spotted meeting one-on-one with Vice President JD Vance at the White House complex. As The Hill reported, this was a repeat visit to the White House grounds, as Loomer met earlier this year with Trump in the Oval Office to raise concerns about certain National Security Council staffers. They were soon fired. When Loomer is in the White House, she brings with her quite a history, including reports that she described herself as a 'white advocate' as well as having posted a video online claiming that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. were 'an inside job.' Loomer is also a leading voice pushing the conspiracy theory suggesting that U.S. law enforcement agencies knew in advance about several mass school shootings and allowed them to happen to help Democrats win elections in order to enact gun control. In thinking about Loomer having access to the president and vice president, an old saying comes to mind: We are the average of the people we spend the most time with. Curtis Yarvin: A leading influence on Vance, Yarvin has called for replacing American democracy with a 'monarch.' His proposals include calls to 'retire all government employees' and, in one especially grotesque idea, he proposed a racial hierarchy to 'put the church Blacks in charge of the ghetto Blacks.' As the New Yorker put it in a profile, Yarvin advocates 'the liquidation of democracy, the Constitution, and the rule of law,' and the transfer of power to a CEO-in-chief (such as Steve Jobs or Marc Andreessen) who would transform government into 'a heavily armed, ultra-profitable corporation.' This regime would sell off public schools, destroy universities, abolish the press and imprison 'decivilized populations.' Odd characters are nothing new in politics. But Trump's second term stands out for putting provocateurs into positions of authority. This starts with the president. Just last week, Trump, on his personal social media platform, called attention to a bizarre claim that President Biden is dead, having been executed in 2020 and his power taken over by an imposter, a 'soulless mindless' robot. And, of course, Trump relentlessly promoted the 'birther' conspiracy theory about Obama — that he had been secretly born abroad — more than a decade ago. Trump's willingness to grab attention by embracing conspiracy theories recently backfired. His critics are taking great delight in the right-wing echo chamber's backlash against Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. They are being castigated by Trump loyalists for failing to unearth any evidence of a conspiracy by elites to kill Jeffrey Epstein. After years of being primed with conspiracy theories, Trump supporters reacted angrily to Patel and Bongino's conclusion that Epstein killed himself in prison and no one else was involved. This brand of conspiracy thinking is in line with the energy that fueled the Proud Boys' attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. It fits with Trump's repeated lie that the 2020 election was stolen. It is in line with the 'Great Replacement Theory' — that Jewish elites are importing brown-skinned immigrants to replace the white working class and the chants of white supremacists in their Charlottesville rally during Trump's first term: 'Jews will not replace us.' And it keeps going. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) recently promised to hold Senate hearings based on 9/11 conspiracy theories. 'What actually happened on 9/11? What do we know? What is being covered up?' Johnson said on a MAGA podcast appearance. 'My guess is there's an awful lot being covered up, in terms of what the American government knows about 9/11.' Johnson isn't alone. House Republicans have pledged to reopen investigations into everything from the JFK assassination to the existence of UFOs. I knew William F. Buckley Jr. a bit — from television, from D.C. and from his days as editor of National Review. He fearlessly called out the excesses of his own movement, particularly the conspiracy mongers in the far-right John Birch Society. Where is the Buckley of today? Juan Williams is senior political analyst for Fox News Channel and a prize-winning civil rights historian. He is the author of the new book 'New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
3 hours ago
- The Hill
Trump and Vance are hanging out with conspiracy theorists and kooks
President Lincoln had a team of rivals. President Trump has a team of conspiracy mongers. Do you remember when Republicans raised holy hell about the people around President Obama? They obsessed over Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, who made inflammatory statements about race. How many conservative media segments fixated on Bill Ayers, formerly of the Weather Underground, claiming Obama 'kicked off his political career in the guy's living room?' In today's Trump-led Republican Party, there is a far more alarming cast of characters firmly in the mainstream of Trump's power. Here is a look at the views of some eye-opening players exercising actual power and making actual policy in the Trump administration. Elon Musk: Last week, Musk's alliance with Trump blew up in a memorable episode of social media back-stabbing worthy of a reality television show. The clash left them both bloodied. But before the personal drama, Musk left a trail of human wounds, fear and confusion with his erratic, reckless firing of tens of thousands of federal workers as well as devil-may-care spending cuts throughout the federal government. And according to the New York Times, Musk was regularly taking drugs during last year's campaign, in which he was the president's top donor. This led one Democratic lawmaker to question whether Musk was regularly taking drugs as a special government employee this year. Trump allowed the unelected Musk to swing a metaphorical chainsaw — he actually did wield a literal one on stage — at government agencies and their workers. Some of those cuts, particularly to the U.S. Agency for International Development, have canceled vital medical treatment, resulting in needless suffering and death. Now, Trump is attacking Musk for condemning his tax and spending bill. Somehow, there is no condemnation of Trump for granting Musk's team access to private information about Americans from government computers. Imagine the explosion in the right-wing echo chamber if Rev. Wright had done anything close to that in the Obama years. Laura Loomer: Last week, the conspiracy theorist and proud podcasting provocateur was spotted meeting one-on-one with Vice President JD Vance at the White House complex. As The Hill reported, this was a repeat visit to the White House grounds, as Loomer met earlier this year with Trump in the Oval Office to raise concerns about certain National Security Council staffers. They were soon fired. When Loomer is in the White House, she brings with her quite a history, including reports that she described herself as a 'white advocate' as well as having posted a video online claiming that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. were 'an inside job.' Loomer is also a leading voice pushing the conspiracy theory suggesting that U.S. law enforcement agencies knew in advance about several mass school shootings and allowed them to happen to help Democrats win elections in order to enact gun control. In thinking about Loomer having access to the president and vice president, an old saying comes to mind: We are the average of the people we spend the most time with. Curtis Yarvin: A leading influence on Vance, Yarvin has called for replacing American democracy with a 'monarch.' His proposals include calls to 'retire all government employees' and, in one especially grotesque idea, he proposed a racial hierarchy to 'put the church Blacks in charge of the ghetto Blacks.' As the New Yorker put it in a profile, Yarvin advocates 'the liquidation of democracy, the Constitution, and the rule of law,' and the transfer of power to a CEO-in-chief (such as Steve Jobs or Marc Andreessen) who would transform government into 'a heavily armed, ultra-profitable corporation.' This regime would sell off public schools, destroy universities, abolish the press and imprison 'decivilized populations.' Odd characters are nothing new in politics. But Trump's second term stands out for putting provocateurs into positions of authority. This starts with the president. Just last week, Trump, on his personal social media platform, called attention to a bizarre claim that President Biden is dead, having been executed in 2020 and his power taken over by an imposter, a 'soulless mindless' robot. And, of course, Trump relentlessly promoted the 'birther' conspiracy theory about Obama — that he had been secretly born abroad — more than a decade ago. Trump's willingness to grab attention by embracing conspiracy theories recently backfired. His critics are taking great delight in the right-wing echo chamber's backlash against Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. They are being castigated by Trump loyalists for failing to unearth any evidence of a conspiracy by elites to kill Jeffrey Epstein. After years of being primed with conspiracy theories, Trump supporters reacted angrily to Patel and Bongino's conclusion that Epstein killed himself in prison and no one else was involved. This brand of conspiracy thinking is in line with the energy that fueled the Proud Boys' attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. It fits with Trump's repeated lie that the 2020 election was stolen. It is in line with the 'Great Replacement Theory' — that Jewish elites are importing brown-skinned immigrants to replace the white working class and the chants of white supremacists in their Charlottesville rally during Trump's first term: 'Jews will not replace us.' And it keeps going. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) recently promised to hold Senate hearings based on 9/11 conspiracy theories. 'What actually happened on 9/11? What do we know? What is being covered up?' Johnson said on a MAGA podcast appearance. 'My guess is there's an awful lot being covered up, in terms of what the American government knows about 9/11.' Johnson isn't alone. House Republicans have pledged to reopen investigations into everything from the JFK assassination to the existence of UFOs. I knew William F. Buckley Jr. a bit — from television, from D.C. and from his days as editor of National Review. He fearlessly called out the excesses of his own movement, particularly the conspiracy mongers in the far-right John Birch Society. Where is the Buckley of today? Juan Williams is senior political analyst for Fox News Channel and a prize-winning civil rights historian. He is the author of the new book 'New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement.'
