Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has dropped by more than 13% nationwide – and more than 20% in Louisiana – over the last year. It’s not because economic conditions have improved and caused fewer people to need assistance. Rather, it’s by design, as the federal tax and budget megabill introduced administrative complexities and other roadblocks that have kept eligible people off the rolls. The Associated Press reports:
Tia Fields, who analyzes social safety net policies at the advocacy group Invest in Louisiana, said the main reason she’s seeing people lose coverage is not failure to meet work requirements. “A lot of it is administrative paperwork,” she said.
Losing SNAP coverage has broader consequences:
For instance, children in households that receive the benefit can be automatically enrolled in free school lunch programs or in the SNAP for Women, Infants and Children program for low-income mothers, young children and expectant parents if they meet the other criteria. “What happens when that child can’t pay for lunch?” she asked.
The share of Louisiana children participating in SNAP has decreased by 22%, the second-largest percentage-point decline in the nation.
Q&A with Kim Hunter Reed
Dr. Kim Hunter Reed became Louisiana’s Commissioner of Higher Education in 2018. She’s the only female in the country who has served as a state higher education leader in multiple states. The Louisiana Illuminator’s Piper Hutchinson sat down with Reed to discuss a range of higher-education topics, including the state’s effort to increase degree and credential attainment:
We set a goal in 2019 that we needed at least 60% of Louisiana’s population having a credential of value beyond high school. That was really focused on what the Georgetown Center was telling us about how many jobs in the state in the year 2030 would require that credential. The future is now. More people need credentials than ever before, and so we started at 44%. We are over 52.5% at our last report. The new report comes out in September, but we’re continuing to make progress.
Reed also discussed Louisiana’s hunger-free campus program:
So many people think that if a student is on a college campus that they are resourced, but what we do know is that we have a significant number of students who are in the K-12 system that are receiving feeding food support, and that deficit does not go away when you graduate from high school. This legislative session, we received a million dollars. Those funds support food pantries on college campuses.
Are private school voucher programs a Trojan horse or cash cow?
The federal tax and budget megabill created a new tax dodge that wealthy families could use to fund tuition at private K-12 schools. Neal Morton of The Hechinger Report, writing in the Washington Post, explains how the megabill’s voucher program would funnel dollars to private and public schools:
Taxpayers can contribute up to $1,700 to what’s known as a scholarship-granting organization and receive a credit on their federal income taxes. … These new intermediaries could be formed by an array of nonprofits, including public-school foundations, with approval from their state. The scholarship-granting organization would then pass on the money to private school and home-school applicants in the form of scholarships — or to school districts so they could cover certain services for student applicants.
So far 30 states, including Louisiana, have opted into the program. But concerns remain:
Governors and superintendents may face fierce resistance from teachers unions, which in many states have portrayed the new program as a Trojan horse for the expansion of vouchers in education because it also allows money to be funneled to families to pay for private school. Some opponents also raise concerns about creating a new funding system that could favor school districts with a ready pool of wealthy donors over those in low-income communities where few residents may owe enough in federal taxes to contribute to the scholarships.
Farmers struggle to get basic services from depleted USDA
The U.S. Department of Agriculture saw roughly 18% of its 110,000 person workforce leave in the first half of 2025. That’s according to a recent report from the agency’s inspector general. The New York Times’ Linda Qiu explains how the USDA is now struggling to perform basic services for farmers:
(F)armers and rural residents describe struggling to obtain the basic services the Agriculture Department is meant to offer, including loans and grants, technical assistance and financing for housing and utilities. Sharp attrition under the Trump administration, largely through voluntary resignations and dismissals by the Department of Government Efficiency, have left many of the Agriculture Department’s local offices with skeletal staffing — and, in some counties, with no one at all.
The USDA has increased its number of workers to 93,000, but more staffing overhauls and funding cuts will increase hardship for farmers and rural communities:
Already, the agency is moving more than half of its staff in the Washington region out of the nation’s capital, a move that is all but certain to further thin the ranks of the agency. Such losses will affect the department’s ability to finance home loans, carry out agricultural research and service farmers, according to federal workers, farm groups and rural lenders…. Likewise, Mr. Trump’s budget for the next fiscal year proposes a nearly $5 billion cut to the Agriculture Department, essentially eliminating programs for beginning farmers, conservation and rural aid.
Number of the Day
$6.89 – The average cost of a pound of ground beef in 75 U.S. cities last month. For the first time, ground beef is more expensive – per pound – than bacon. (Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis via the Washington Post)