The governors of a dozen states – Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming –
opted out of the program, leaving about 9.5 million students
without the aid this summer, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. All of these states are led by Republicans, who have said they oppose welfare, the administrative burden of overseeing food benefits and what they call overreach by the federal government. All but two of the six states with the highest rates of food insecurity opted out of the benefits. The two exceptions, whose Republican governors accepted EBT, are Arkansas and Louisiana.
Among Republican leaders, there's debate about the extra federal cash for food. Nebraska Republican Gov. Jim Pillen
has said the program is "just another form of welfare ... and it's not doing our kids any good" whereas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, an Arkansas Republican and former Trump administration official, as “an important new tool to give Arkansas children the food and nutrition they need.”
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Democracy is long gone from either party.