Minnesota’s free school meals program featured on ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’

John Oliver has a lot to say about Minnesota’s free school meals program. The comedian and host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” spent a large chunk of Sunday’s program discussing its journey from legislative proposal to law as he made the case for a national program.

Oliver argued that taxpayers already foot the bill for schools to stock classrooms with books and desks.

“We accept that they’re subsidized by the government as an investment in kids’ futures,” he said. “And I would argue meals should be, too.”

Oliver kicked off the Minnesota-centric portion of the segment with a quick reference to the viral photos of Gov. Tim Walz signing the free school meals bill at Webster Elementary in northeast Minneapolis. Now the Democratic nominee for vice president, images of children embracing Walz during the event spread in the days and weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris chose him as her running mate.

Oliver also touched on the legislative debates from the 2023 legislative session, particularly calls from Republicans to make eligibility conditional — conservative lawmakers argued the legislation should focus on serving children from low-income households. While Oliver didn’t note this, some school districts and education groups also voiced concerns over the bill’s price tag. It was initially pegged at about $220 million per year to administer.

The program also did not reach every charter school.

But Oliver did cover the fact that about 1 million more kids participated in the program than state officials anticipated, leading to estimates that it will cost another $80 million to $90 million per year.

He also focused on the testimony of St. Paul teacher Mandi Jung during a House education committee hearing, opining that she’s the kind of educator who would take her students on a field trip to the museum of natural history and — in a hushed tone — said he’s sure she’d let them touch dinosaur bones.

“I know the fun teacher when I see one and that is the fun teacher right there,” Oliver said. “Bright, color-blocked outfit. Fun glasses. Purple hair. There is a class of misfit seventh-graders for whom she is their absolute queen.”

Jung shared her reaction to the segment on X Monday morning and updated her profile on the social platform to say, “John Oliver said I looked like a fun teacher.”