Tennessee Should Cancel School Lunch Debt
Instead, the state is poised to spend nearly $300 million on vouchers in 2025
According to a recent article in Salon, students in K-12 public schools in Tennessee owe a total of more than $50 million in school lunch debt.
“. . . according to 2024 statistics from the Education Data Center, on a state-level, Tennessee has $51,610,062 in student lunch debt and about 285,770 food insecure students.”
So.
No.
Just no.
School lunch debt should NOT exist.
The state can clearly afford to cancel ALL school lunch debt for all students.
In fact, lawmakers are on the verge of committing $144 million to a school voucher scheme destined to get pretty bad results.
Not only can Tennessee afford to erase all school lunch debt from the books, the state also has the resources to make school meals free for all kids all the time.
Should Kids Have School Lunch Debt?
A recent story out of Humphreys County raises the question: Why aren’t school meals free for all kids? Here’s WSMV reporting on the attempt to discourage kids from incurring school lunch debt: A new policy at Humphreys County Schools is causing a stir as students will be given an “alternate meal” if they’re behind on lunch charges, according to Humphreys …
The cost of paying for free meals for all kids is projected to be $714 million a year.
Gov. Lee and legislative leaders are moving to pass a $1.9 billion corporate tax giveaway.
So, to recap:
Multi-billion dollar corporate tax giveaway: Lee says yes!
Free meals for all school kids: Lee says no!
Cancel student lunch debt: Another no from Lee.
Hundreds of millions for a voucher scheme: Sign Lee up!
Agreed
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