January 16th 2020

By Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos

Every few days there is a story about someone, a child, an adult, or an organization figuring out a way to pay off some child’s or set of children’s lunch “debt.” The stories are feel good only in as much as they show how caring and thoughtful and selfless some people can be in the face of shaming children, and more over-arching anti-child and anti-family policies. The Republican Party, under Donald Trump, has continued putting pressure on families by cutting budgets to food assistance programs. Vermont legislators have proposed Senate Bill 223 which, if passed, would make the state of Vermont the first to have a universal free school meals program for public schools.

 The Vermont Digger reports that State Sen. Debbie Ingram, one of the bill’s sponsors, told reporters that, “What’s happening now is that there is a hodgepodge of which schools provide one meal, or both meals, and how they pay for those meals.” The law would mandate that all schools provide free breakfast and lunch to students who want it and that any costs not covered by federal monies “or other sources would be borne by school districts, and therefore ultimately borne by the Education Fund.” 

According to VT Digger, the state’s current education fund runs at $1.7 billion annually. The bill’s sponsor estimates this would add only $4 million a year to the current education fund, something that Sen. Ingram says is “incredibly reasonable.” The main issue with this bill will be whether or not the legislature will have the political will—as property taxes might very well be affected—to truly fund the schools after they mandate them to provide free food.

This legislation, if passed, would provide a larger blueprint for universal free school meals. At the federal level, in June, Rep. Ilhan Omar proposed the No Shame at School Act, which would provide federal aid to pay off outstanding school meal debt. Doing away with making children and their families pay for meals would be a welcomed step further. It has already been shown that, regardless of one’s financial background, children do better in school when they aren’t worried about affording food to eat. The Vermont plan would be a smaller and more limited version of the SNAP expansion and universal free school meal programs former presidential candidate Julián Castro proposed back in November.

Posted with permission