ATLANTA – Georgia Board of Education members chastised federal bureaucrats Thursday as they voted to exempt public schools from new snack regulations the majority believe are overbearing.

“I’m offended by the belief that only people in Washington, D.C. care for children,” board member Larry Winter said.

Winter’s colleague, board member Barbara Hampton, expressed a similar sentiment as the board voted 9-1 to allow districts to sell “unhealthy snacks” for school fundraisers, with some restrictions.

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“Georgians know what’s best for Georgians and it’s more for me a message about federal versus state than it is nutrition in the school, because that’s a local decision,” she said, according to 11alive.com.

The move will exempt Georgia schools from new federal regulations on school snacks rolling out this year as part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s ongoing national school lunch overhaul.

The regulations prohibit school snacks that do not contain at least 50 percent whole grains, fruit, vegetable, dairy or protein as the main ingredient. The rules also limit snacks to 200 calories, 230 milligrams of sodium and no more than 35 percent of calories from fat, according to news reports.

The federal dictates allow states to exempt schools from the snack regulations, although most haven’t. Under the recently approved Georgia snack guidelines, schools can sell “unhealthy snacks” during as many as 30 fundraisers per year, with each lasting up to three days. In essence, it allows schools to sell unregulated snacks for about half of the 180-day school year, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

Schools are not required to allow the unhealthy snacks, and can devise their own policies at the school or district level.

“Most states have not given exemptions, according to nutrition and health officials who have been following the issue,” the AJC reports. “They also say no state has given as many exemptions as Georgia is offering.”

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Georgia district officials had complained the national snack regulations severely limit food related fundraisers, an important source of school revenue. Nutritionists and other health experts, meanwhile, testified against the exemptions in state board proceedings.

“Anything that you offer a child to eat at school, whether it’s in the lunch line, or whether it’s a snack or a fundraiser, make it a healthy option,” Marci Thrasher, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, told the Georgia Board of Education. “Parents are not there to help them make the decision.”

In several places, it seems school officials are more than eager to make the decision about appropriate school snacks for parents.

In some school districts, like Edmonds School District in Washington, school leaders are using their authority as snack police under the federal law to control all foods shared by students, instead of simply what’s sold on school grounds.

As a result, Edmonds school officials banned birthday cupcakes and other celebratory snacks for classroom parties, and are instead encouraging students to mark their special occasions with gift pencils, origami frogs and extra recess time.

Officials at Brooks Elementary School in Coweta County, Georgia also recently banned birthday cupcakes and other treats, and initially blamed the Michelle Obama-inspired rules for the policy change. School officials changed their reasoning for the new policy after the fact, however, and now contend the ban on birthday treats is to protect students with allergies.