This is not the first time I’ve heard the “we must stay open so the kids get their free hot meals” justification for not closing schools. Is it an unintended admission that other welfare programs — I am looking at you food stamps — simply don’t work? After all, low income kids who might be getting their only hot meals at school almost certainly come from families receiving (or qualified for) food stamps. That was the case for Dasani, New York’s recent progressive cause celebre. Why, then, are these kids not being fed at home such that schools must stay open in near blizzard conditions?