National School Lunch Program Has Morphed Into Massive, Wasteful Entitlement Program

The National School Lunch Program has changed dramatically since it began in 1946. What started as a grant program to help poor students and those with special needs has morphed into a massive entitlement offering meals to 30 million students every year—equivalent to nearly 55% of all children enrolled in public and private schools. And the bigger the program got, the more wasteful it became. The Office of Management and Budget now classifies the school lunch program as a “high-error” program due to large losses from incorrect payments each year—nearly $800 million in fiscal year 2018 alone. In 2010, the Obama administration approved letting school districts offer free meals to all students in schools where 40% of the student body comes from low-income families that qualify for public assistance such as food stamps. This “Community Eligibility Provision” is providing meals—breakfast as well as lunch—to kids from middle- and upper-income families. Federal regulations adopted to implement these changes to the lunch program further stretched the eligibility criteria. Districts have been permitted to combine the percentages of eligible students across groups of schools so they can offer free meals to students in schools that don’t meet the 40% threshold. For example, if only 20% of the students in School A are eligible for free meals, but 61% of School B’s students meet the criteria, the district can “combine” the numbers and provide free meals to all students in both schools. That’s problematic for taxpayers—and those who believe free food should be reserved for students truly in need. President Donald Trump’s 2020 budget proposal would put an end to this practice of grouping schools together. The idea is to provide “better targeting [of] free meal benefits to children in need of assistance,” the original purpose of federal school meals...MORE