(C) Virginia Mercury This story was originally published by Virginia Mercury and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Virginians can stomach the cost of free meals for all K-12 students [1] ['More From Author', 'January', 'Roger Chesley'] Date: 2024-01-29 Full bellies and nutritious food options aren’t a guarantee for all of Virginia’s public schoolchildren. Hungry students can’t focus on learning and comprehension. Researchers say free school meals boost attendance and improve diet, as well reduce the stigma associated with children who struggle to pay in the cafeteria line. That’s why Virginia should join a handful of pioneering states that provide free breakfasts and/or lunches to all K-12 schoolkids, regardless of family income. Those states include Colorado, California and Maine. Others have approved legislation establishing optional or mandatory universal school meal programs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Virginia state Sen. Danica Roem, a Manassas Democrat who’s authored several successful bills involving school meals since joining the General Assembly in 2018, has sponsored Senate Bill 283 this General Assembly session. It would provide universal free breakfasts and lunches to the commonwealth’s 1.26 million public schoolchildren. A Senate committee has approved the bill, as my Virginia Mercury colleague Nathaniel Cline reported. The proposal would cost $346 million over the next two years. Federal funding helps pay for current free and reduced meals nationwide; Roem’s measure, using general fund money, has the state covering what the feds don’t. “I have yet to hear an argument of why we shouldn’t do this” that has any validity, Roem told me. “No child should go hungry.” Many low-income children, of course, are covered already by programs funded by the U.S. government. Roem’s bill – and one in the state House sponsored by Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, D-Alexandria – would make the program free to all public schoolchildren in the commonwealth. It’s likely many wealthy and middle-income families would decline the assistance. That’s no problem: The school meals legislation provides an opt out clause for parents. Other families, though, would welcome the help. News stories from recent years of individual schools or divisions piling up debt because families either couldn’t pay, or because students ambled through meal lines not knowing their accounts were overdrawn, are easy to find. Prince William County Public Schools – the state’s second largest behind Fairfax County – ended the 2022-23 school year with almost $350,000 in school meal debt. Students in Henrico County public schools had accrued more than $50,000 halfway through that year, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. School divisions then have to take money from other categories – such as funding for books or additional teachers – to make up the shortfall. Concerned residents in Virginia, like Adelle Settle and teacher Gabe Segal, have pitched in to help schools eliminate their debt and end so-called “lunch shaming.” The former’s nonprofit, aptly named “Settle the Debt,” has even been featured on national television. Such citizen philanthropy shouldn’t be necessary, though. We can all help in much the same way that our tax dollars support teacher pay, school buses and books. Roem is fond of saying no one gets upset when students in richer communities use school buses; it’s an expected cost. Senate Bill 283 passed 11-4 in the Senate Committee on Education and Health. One committee member, Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, said wealthy counties shouldn’t need free meals. But Roem noted that even in those localities, there can be pockets of low- and middle-income families who could use the lunch-line help. I tried reaching the four Republicans who voted against the bill on the panel. None of them responded to my emailed questions. (Two Republican senators voted for the measure.) My inquiries included whether the opponents favored the pending $1.35 billion taxpayer subsidy that would go to building a Northern Virginia sports arena to lure the Washington Capitals and Wizards from the District of Columbia. If approved, the funding would be the largest-ever public subsidy for a project of its kind, The Washington Post reported. I know we’re not talking an apples-to-apples comparison with school meals. But the two initiatives are worth examining together. It’s a question of priorities. What kind of government spending do legislators favor? The arena deal includes a 12-acre mixed-use complex, bond offerings and all sorts of financial projections. Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the group that would bring the teams to Virginia, would pay $403 million up front and rent starting annually at $29.5 million. The potential tax dollars from the complex make politicians salivate. Gov. Youngkin has said the public money being offered would mostly come from revenue that wouldn’t exist without the project. Keep in mind, though, that Ted Leonsis, managing partner of Monumental, has a net worth of $2.8 billion, according to Forbes.com. He’s among the richest people in the world. And Virginians could be shelling out a lot of bucks for the privilege of saying: “We host major league teams!” True, free meals to students is a net revenue “loser.” But they’re an investment in human capital – akin to public libraries and recreation centers. They improve children’s lives. We shouldn’t be the last state to sign on to free school meals. Our children will thank us. And they won’t risk embarrassment by asking for something to eat. 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