 Colorado Capitol |
What could be simpler: A government budget crisis threatens funding for a school breakfast program and several Christian groups, challenged by a newspaper columnist, say, “We’ll pay the tab.”
Then, of course, enters Big Brother.
It seems the Colorado governor, newly elected John Hickenlooper, has to request the funding and the Legislature has to approve it before any donated money can be used for Colorado’s Start Smart program.
The issue developed in recent days as the program to subsidize basic breakfasts for low-income children in their schools, in a slipping economy, attracted many more participants than expected.
The result was an expected shortfall of about $125,000 for the program for the tail end of this fiscal year, a problem that would have left hundreds of children without the breakfast subsidies for the last few weeks of the school year.
After the problem was publicized, a challenge was issued by columnist Wayne Laugesen of the Gazette newspaper in Colorado Springs, the home of dozens of large evangelical Christian organizations such as the Navigators and Focus on the Family.
The column criticized state Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, for not expanding the funding and noted he suggested churches step up.
“He’s right,” wrote Laugesen. “This is exactly the kind of problem churches and charities should solve. … Religious organizations and other charities do a lot of great work in Colorado, but if government has to fund breakfasts for kids then our charities are dropping the ball.
“Charities and churches,” he wrote, “please step up and solve this dilemma so government won’t have to.”
Agreed, said the Colorado Springs Community Roundtable. That’s a group of Christian ministries in the Colorado Springs area, including Northern Churches Care, Southern Colorado Youth for Christ, Focus on the Family, the Navigators and others.
Acting as a spokesman because his organization currently leads the Roundtable, was Gary Schneeburger, Focus on the Family’s vice president of media and public relations.
He said the Roundtable has heard comments but nothing definite on whether the offer of help for the state can be or will be accepted.
“Our main reason for coming forward was … to step up and be the hands and feet of Christ,” said Schneeburger
He said often conservative evangelicals talk about government being too big, and this was an opportunity to demonstrate that help for “widows and orphans” are issues to which they want to respond.
But he said the no-response response from the government was just a little surprising.
“We apparently are in uncharted waters,” he said. “We think we can chart them.”
Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, said of the offer in an interview with the Gazette, “I think it’s great and I appreciate that, but I think it’s something we can deal with within the legislative process.”
He declined to return WND requests for comment, but a legislative staff member explained that state funding for the program may not be dead yet. The staff member said the process requires a formal request for additional funding from the governor’s office, which is expected in a few weeks.
Then the request could be reviewed again. Several of the lawmakers who earlier voted against the extension plan suggested they were reconsidering their positions.
The staff member explained there is a procedure for state agencies to accept donations, but no matter what is donated, the numbers have to be crunched through the legislative request and budget process before the money can be spent.
Laugesen wrote in a followup commentary there’s no reason for the government to get in the way of any such donations.
“If religion pays for breakfast, government can use its own school breakfast funds to pay for something else. If churches pay for the breakfast, it means they’re funded by people choosing to help and not by people forced to pay taxes that may cause their own children to go without.”
