It's Time to Make School Meals Free for All Kids

It's actually past time

Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash

I’m excited that this year, more states are offering free school meals for all kids.

Here’s a story out of Massachusetts:

Gov. Maura Healey has made it official - Massachusetts public school students will get free lunch for good.

"Nobody calls them free lunch anymore or free meals, it's just lunch, everybody just has lunch," said Rebecca Wood, who told WBZ TV, she wasn't always confident her 11-year-old, Charlie, would have access to school lunch.

And there’s this one out of Minnesota:

Lunch money is a thing of the past for the vast majority of Minnesota kids going back to school this fall.

Driving the news: A new universal school meals state law provides no-cost breakfast and lunch to Minnesota's 800,000-plus students, regardless of their family's income.

Meanwhile, legislation to make school meals free for all kids in Tennessee has been repeatedly rejected, despite a significant state funding surplus.

There’s simply no reason for lunch shaming. There’s no reason kids should be hungry at school. It’s encouraging that there are now eight states where school meals are free for all kids. It’s time to make free school meals universal.

Tennessee Policymakers vs. Public Schools

Tennessee’s legislative leaders are going all-in on the very bad idea of rejecting federal funds for public schools.

It’s a bad move in a state that already underfunds schools by $1.7 billion a year.

Not only is Tennessee moving to make public schools do more with less money, but the state is also working diligently to hand the operation of schools over to a Christian Nationalist charter network.

Read more on the education policy malpractice happening in the Volunteer State.