Tennessee Republican state Rep. John Ragan repeatedly appeared unwilling or unable to answer if feeding low-income children is in itself good, when questioned about his remarks suggesting federal funds used to feed low-income children should be refused if they cannot be shown to improve the students’ performance.
Eight lawmakers appointed to the state’s newly-created Joint Working Group on Federal Education Funding have been tasked by the Speaker of the House and Lt. Governor, both Republicans, to find a way to reject at least $1.8 billion in federal funds for education. Tennessee would be the first state in the nation to do so.
“Is there any circumstance where feeding low income kids would be a bad thing?” Rep. Ragan was asked Wednesday by The Tennessee Holler, a progressive news site founded by former Democratic congressional candidate Justin Kanew.
After pausing, Ragan replied, “I’m sorry, the purpose of your question evades me.”
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Ragan was also asked, “Don’t you think feeding kids is good in general?”
“I’m sorry, that’s nothing to do with what I asked about” earlier in the week, the Republican lawmaker replied.
But as The Tennessee Holler shows in the video below, Ragan questioned if taking federal funds was worthwhile if students’ performance did not increase.
“We get this money, that’s supposedly aimed at the most needy students and the lowest performing students. What’s the measure of improvement for this money coming in? How much has it improved the performance of these students?” Ragan had said on Tuesday.
Later in the video, the lawmaker was asked, “what is the emphasis on school lunches then if not, you know, tying food to student performance, then, where do your questions around the lunches come from?”
Ragan, appearing to answer that question, says: “The question revolves around the tie was brought up today among federal funding sources, whether or not one is tied to another, whether or not we have efficiencies in one that can be transported across to another one, or inefficiencies, inefficiencies that can be resolved.”
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Again, asked, “Isn’t feeding low income kids just a good thing period?” Rep. Ragan refused to answer the question directly, but pivoted to “data.”
“The reason I asked the question” about performance, Ragan replied, “was to gain data so that we had a feel for how much money goes into that program and if we can make it more efficient, that is to say, eliminate waste – you ignored the questions I asked about waste – if we can eliminate waste, I would take that money and put it towards one of the other programs to make more, and or increase the program. You can’t segregate those things apart. When I ask for data it’s to be able to make decisions, analyze the data.”
“The implications you raised over questions are meaningless because the questions are to get information,” Ragan concluded.
Watch The Tennessee Holler’s video below or at this link.
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