Schools Side With Junk-Food Vendors …is the headline of an article in the August 23, 2001 San Jose Mercury News 1 . Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Norwalk) authored legislation that would have banned the sale of soda and high-fat or sugary snack foods in California schools. But the bill was opposed by about two dozen school districts. The result was that the bill was heavily amended to apply mainly to elementary schools.

Sen. Escutia is quoted as saying, “…they have put profit at the expense of the health of our kids, and I don’t think that is right.” Brett McFadden, legislative advocate for the Association of California School Board Administrators, is quoted as saying “That argument is a load of crap. This bill was not attached with the appropriate funding. To live with the mandates of the program, we would have to take dollars out of the classroom. The fact that they can’t get funding, and still stick us with the bill so they can have a political and legislative victory, is morally wrong.”

What’s wrong with this picture? For one thing, Sen. Escutia’s argument is not a load of crap, it is exactly correct: McFadden admits the reason California School Board Administrators oppose the bill is they want the money junk food sales bring in. And morals? How moral is it to say lets get more money for the school by ruining our students’ health? No, Mr. McFadden, and any other school principle that thinks the way you do, remove junk foods now, place our children’s health first, and worry about closing the funding gap second! Did it ever occur to you when you allowed vending machines in the cafeteria that maybe they would compete with the healthy school lunch program? Duh!