You've probably heard about the school board in Pennsylvania who sent a letter to parents with overdue lunch money tabs threatening to take their children away because of the debt. But did you hear that a local CEO offered to pay off every dime of the bills and the school board refused to take it?

They'd actually prefer to tear children away from their families.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that this is about the money. It's not. It's about power. It's about humiliating and terrorizing poor families.

How this whole thing got started

Dozens of families opened the most shocking letter of their lives last week when the Wyoming Valley West School District, one of the poorest districts in the state, attempted to collect overdue lunch money tabs by threatening to have their children removed from the home if they didn't pony up immediately.

The letter was only sent to the "worst" offenders – meaning those whose children had a meal debt of $10 or more.

"Your child has been sent to school every day without money and without a breakfast and/or lunch," the 200-word letter read. "This is a failure to provide your child with proper nutrition and you can be sent to Dependency Court for neglecting your child's right to food. If you are taken to Dependency court, the result may be your child being removed from your home and placed in foster care." (source)

The letter was signed by Joseph Muth, director of federal programs for the Wyoming Valley West School District.  Joseph Mazur, the president of the district's board of education, has defended the letter because "it worked."