File Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado
DENVER | Colorado lawmakers on a key legislative committee want to continue offering free school meals to all students, even though the cost of the popular new program is higher than initially expected.
During a hearing of the state’s Joint Budget Committee on Tuesday, several lawmakers came out against cost-cutting proposals that would eliminate universal free meals for students in some grades or school districts.
Sen. Jeff Bridges, the committee’s chairperson, said, “Making sure that kids aren’t hungry when they’re trying to learn is a core service [of schools], and it’s one that we as a state need to fund.”
Rep. Shannon Bird, the committee’s vice chair, agreed, adding, “I’m not in favor of anything that shifts financial responsibility for feeding kids to local school districts.”
Colorado’s universal school meals program launched last school year after voters approved funding in 2022 that reduced state income tax deductions for households earning $300,000 or more. The measure raised more than $100 million for the Healthy School Meals for All program, but there was still a $56 million shortfall last year. The legislature found the money to close that gap last year and this year, but is still seeking long-term solutions.
An advisory group report released this week offered 27 possible options. About one-third of the options would involve limiting eligibility to certain students or schools, for example, by removing high schoolers from the program or covering lunch but not breakfast. But a host of education and advocacy organizations consulted by the advisory group were “resoundingly” opposed to these types of restrictions, the report said
They believe “universal meals should be maintained as originally legislated; it is too soon to cut a program that has just begun,” the report said.
Other budget-balancing options in the report mostly revolve around bringing in more tax revenue to support the program or using existing federal or state dollars to augment current funding.
The Joint Budget Committee expressed particular interest in a move that was mentioned in the advisory report but was not officially one of the 27 options: asking voters next November if the state can keep the tax revenue it collected above what it initially asked voters for in 2022. In the first year of the program, that amounted to $26 million. A state law known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, requires excess funding to be returned unless voters explicitly allow the state to keep it.
Committee members also briefly discussed potential legislation that would decouple state tax deduction rules used to fund universal school meals from federal tax deduction rules. If they don’t cut that tie, funding for the meals program could plummet after the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expires at the end of 2025.
While the Joint Budget Committee was clearly opposed to any budget solution that would feed fewer kids free school meals, they did seem willing to limit grant programs that were originally intended to roll out with the free meal offerings. The grants, which mostly are on hold now, would have helped districts buy Colorado-grown food, provide stipends for kitchen employees, and pay for training or equipment. The committee plays a major role in crafting the state budget each year, with the full legislature approving it. The meals program is part of the state budget.
Bridges said lawmakers won’t make a final decision on the grant programs until spring, when they get closer to finalizing the state budget. Still, he said, “I do think that it’s pretty clear where the committee is on that question, which is no on the grants, yes on the [meals].”
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
I am so grateful Colorado is leading the way on meals for students. I remember the horror stories of cafeteria employees being forced to take a meal back if the child had an overdue lunch account….terrible for the child and the employee. Out of all the questionable things we spend money on – feeding children is such a good and honorable expenditure. Bravo Colorado!
Sure, let’s keep giving food away for free and not teaching kids or parents the important responsibility of budgeting and prioritizing money. Many of these kids’ parents spend frivolously on things they can’t afford, and yet they can’t figure out how to keep enough money in the house to send their kids to school with a lunch?? What are we teaching these people?
YOU aren’t teaching “these people” anything. “WE” are trying to ensure that the K-12 students have the mental fuel to ensure they can learn. So get off your high horse. Unless you are willin to have mandatory parenting classes prior to child birth, you haven’t a leg to stand on.
Mandatory parenting classes would be a great thing to get people to understand the life changes they’ll need to make to support a family. How about if we even go earlier than that and have mandatory classes that show the consequences of getting pregnant in the first place. If these people can’t afford to feed their children three meals a day, then they shouldn’t have had children to begin with. These are parents who simply see schools as a glorified baby-sitting service. Now, we’re giving kids free lunches, then they get free college thanks to Biden’s loan forgiveness plan (which we all pay for!!), and then we get new workers coming into their careers with absolutely no idea of what responsibility is and where their place is.
I absolutely have a leg to stand on here. I was raised by a single mother who sacrificed her desires for a comfortable life to ensure we had food on the table at home and that I had lunches to take to school every day. I got a job in high school so I could afford a car, my insurance and I kept it through college to help pay for my schooling. My mom and I both were diligent about paying off my student loans, and now that she’s finally in semi-retirement she can live comfortably while I take care of her. My wife and I, in turn, have taught both of our kids the value of money, the importance of making sure they have three meals per day and the concept of self-reliance and personal responsibility. This is the way things should be. Let’s teach kids that free isn’t really free and let’s make their parents understand the responsibility of actually parenting.
What are we teaching these people? Compassion for others. One of the best things a person can learn.
Compassion gets you no where. Case in point is our current idiot of a President. Social media and reality television have killed the concept of compassion. I’ve lost any sense of compassion long ago, and frankly, I don’t want it back.
If some parents are receiving SNAP (food stamp) benefits for themselves and their children, why are their children being sent to school hungry? Are some parents using their benefits for their children on other things? I would think that if schools are required to feed children in these instances, the cost should come out of the benefits already being provided to them under the SNAP program. Otherwise this is “double dipping” from the social safety net.
You’ve nailed it on the head!