On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) discussed progress on education in the state and said that having free breakfast for all public school students “made a big difference and a big help and boost to our kids.” And a student who’s hungry won’t learn.
Huckabee Sanders said that “we have legitimately transformed education in the state of Arkansas, going from being continually ranked at the very bottom and last to leading the nation in terms of teacher pay, largest investment in public education. At the same time, opening up universal school choice for every single student, deploying literacy coaches. We have made a massive cultural shift.”
She added that having a less powerful teachers’ union helped, and “Last year alone, Arkansas student test scores went up 20% in every single grade for every single subject.”
Host Bill Maher then said, “[E]verybody — the kids all get breakfast now.”
Huckabee Sanders then said, “We’re one of the only states in the South that opens and has free breakfast for every single student in public school. We know that if a kid is starting out hungry…there’s no way they’re learning math and science and reading, and so it’s made a big difference and a big help and boost to our kids.”
Maher then remarked, “But how come it’s only socialism when they do it?”
Huckabee Sanders responded, “There’s a big difference between giving everything away for free and helping kids start out on the right foot. I don’t know that I would say those are the same thing.”
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