Republicans are denying free school lunch to low-income students

Republican elected officials at both the state and federal level are actively working to block students from receiving free or reduced-price school lunches — meals that experts say are key to reducing childhood hunger in the United States.

Alaska, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Dakota and Texas all declined to participate in the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer program, which was created earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic to give low-income families extra money to purchase food when schools are closed. Because those states are not participating in the program, millions of low-income students from those seven Republican-controlled states won’t get $120 this summer to spend on groceries, Pluribus News reported. Officials in the states said it was too much work to distribute the extra food aid.

“The reality is the requirements of the P-EBT program are labor intensive for both school districts and DPHHS,” the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services said in a statement in June after a local television station reported that the state would no longer be participating in the P-EBT program.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu denied a request from state lawmakers to automatically sign up students for free and reduced-priced meals if they were eligible rather than have their families be required to find the information themselves and sign up.

And last summer, Missouri refused to opt in to a federal program that would have allowed parents of low-income students to pick up meals during the summer when school was out, according to NBC News. The GOP-controlled state was the only state in the country not to opt in to the Summer Food Service Program.

Democratic-controlled states, meanwhile, are passing laws to expand access to free school meals.

California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont have all passed laws making school meals free for all students, regardless of income, according to a report from Education Week.

Five of the states are run by Democratic governors. Republican Vermont Gov. Phil Scott did not support the universal free meals program passed by the Democratic Legislature but let it become law because his veto would have been overridden.

Michigan joined the list on July 20 when Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bipartisan education budget that makes breakfast and lunch free for all public school students in the state.

“Every Michigan child deserves a chance to pursue their potential and build a bright future. This historic education budget will make that possible,” Whitmer said in a statement.

Research shows that free and reduced-price school lunches help lower the rate of childhood hunger and improve student performance.

A 2021 report from Georgetown University professor Krista Ruffini published by the Brookings Institute found that students’ math scores improved and the number of disciplinary suspensions decreased at schools that offered free meals.

Congress made free lunch available to every public school student in the country in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic led to mass layoffs and loss of income for millions of Americans.

However, that funding lapsed for the 2022-2023 school year, with Democrats blaming Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for Congress not reauthorizing the spending.

“Instead of continuing the bipartisan tools and flexibilities to help safely provide meals to students during school and over the summer, which could easily be done in the omnibus, Republican leadership has said NO and decided that they prefer to let our kids go hungry,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) told Politico in 2022 before the funding lapsed. “This is a disgrace!”

The end of nationwide free meals led to an increase in unpaid school lunch debt at schools across the country.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.