Tuesday, May 5, 2026 | 12:32 p.m.<\/p>\n
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford\u2019s education\u00a0platform, if\u00a0he is elected\u00a0governor, includes free school meals for all students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not only would\u00a0guaranteed\u00a0school meals save families money, but food is necessary, Ford said in an interview today in advance of the release of his education plan. Feeding schoolchildren is one of his top priorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up eating stale candy bars for dinner and taking some of those stale candy bars\u00a0to\u00a0lunch. I know what\u00a0it’s\u00a0like to be hungry in the classroom and having\u00a0a hard time\u00a0learning,\u201d Ford said. \u201cAnd\u00a0I’ve\u00a0been a teacher.\u00a0I’ve\u00a0taught\u00a0those students\u00a0who’ve\u00a0likewise been hungry and had\u00a0a hard time\u00a0learning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Universal free breakfast and lunch\u00a0has\u00a0been a recurring\u00a0theme\u00a0in\u00a0Carson City\u00a0in recent years. Federal pandemic relief funds temporarily made meals free regardless of family income, but Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed a 2023 bill to extend the program using state funds. He cited food waste and other programs addressing food insecurity in his veto. A similar bill in 2025\u00a0didn’t\u00a0make it out of\u00a0committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ford, a Democrat, will have to win the primary in June to take on incumbent Lombardo, the presumptive Republican candidate. If he succeeds, he has a wide education and child wellness plan with\u00a0specific\u00a0focus on free meals, online safety and supporting union apprenticeships and job training for young Nevadans who do not attend college.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that these programs can produce high-paying, quality jobs, and they can bring opportunities for the dignity and respect that’s associated with the job to these students,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the preschool-through-high school space, Ford also said he broadly supports:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
expanded career and technical education, to include AI literacy and high-tech careers\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
improved literacy rates achieved through reading specialists in every elementary school in the state\u00a0<\/p>\n
expanded early childhood education\u00a0<\/p>\n
better pay for school support staff\u00a0<\/p>\n
training and\u00a0retaining\u00a0educators, to include counselors\u00a0<\/p>\n
smaller class sizes\u00a0<\/p>\n
improved attendance\u00a0<\/p>\n
stronger student behavioral standards\u00a0<\/p>\n
streamlined testing\u00a0<\/p>\n
a statewide appointed parents council\u00a0<\/p>\n
a promise to continue standing up for federal funding\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said Lombardo, though vocal about education reforms, has not made progress during his term. He pointed to Nevada\u2019s stubbornly low rankings: 46th in education outcomes and 47th in child\u00a0well-being\u00a0according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation\u2019s 2025 Kids Count report, and low\u00a0proficiency\u00a0in elementary school reading and math.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite all of that, Joe Lombardo continues to support Donald Trump’s plan to, for example, eliminate the Department of Education and\u00a0to cut\u00a0federal funding for Nevada schools,\u201d he said. \u201cI went to court to protect that billion dollars a year that we received from the federal Department of Education, a Department of Education which, incidentally, provides opportunities for students who come from less affluent neighborhoods. I was one of those kids.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ford, who has three education degrees and taught math in public schools before becoming a lawyer,\u00a0participated\u00a0in the federally funded Project Upward Bound, a college preparatory program for first-generation and low-income high schoolers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said he wants all children to have the opportunities he\u00a0had.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just fundamentally believe that every student throughout our entire state, irrespective of where they live, deserves a high-quality education that is going to prepare them for careers or for college,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tuesday, May 5, 2026 | 12:32 p.m. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford\u2019s education\u00a0platform, if\u00a0he is elected\u00a0governor, includes free school meals for all students.\u00a0 Not only would\u00a0guaranteed\u00a0school meals save families money, but food is necessary, Ford said in an interview today in advance of the release of his education plan. Feeding schoolchildren is one of his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[4870,4868,4866,4869,4867],"class_list":["post-42433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nevada","tag-nevada","tag-nevada-dining","tag-nevada-food","tag-nevada-grocery-stores","tag-nevada-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117381723867354367","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}