Free school lunches for children in Florida may be at risk because Florida officials do not want to comply with federal requirements around gender identity.
Under new rules, schools are required to hang a poster announcing that the school complies with regulations against civil rights discrimination. The new poster says the school is prohibited from discriminating anyone on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation, disability and age.
If the school does not hang this poster, it may lose the right to participate in the free and reduced lunch program.. This provides low-cost or even free lunches to children in public and non-private schools. Florida joined a lawsuit against this new requirement, accusing the USDA of promoting a radical gender ideology.
Florida commissioner of agriculture Nikki Fried was in support of this new poster, and argued Gov. Ron DeSantis is creating this war to pave his way for his presidency.
“It’s clear that Gov. DeSantis isn’t prioritizing the people of our state — he’s trying to create yet another manufactured crisis, another culture war, another political opportunity to divide us because he’s running for President,” said Fried via Florida Politics. “Unfortunately, these stumps have real-world consequences and the consequences here are that Florida kids may not be able to get the food they need.”
New Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. has previously voiced his displeasure over federal protections for gender identity. He instructed Florida schools to ignore Title IX guidelines around gender identity last month. Florida has not filed suit against the USDA and the USDA has not moved to block the program in the state. A Christian school in Tampa has sued Fried, as the state’s representative of the program, to block the new poster.