The Republican leaders of the House Education Committee say they can increase the reimbursement rate for school breakfasts by 2 cents per meal only because they would curtail a provision that allows free meals to all students in low-income neighborhoods. The squeeze on the so-called community eligibility provision has been criticized by anti-hunger groups. In a statement, the committee says its bill, to revamp child nutrition programs costing $23 billion a year, “will better serve students in need.” In rebutting “partisan attacks” on its community eligibility proposal, the leaders say, “By better targeting assistance, the bill increases the reimbursement for breakfast meals for the first time in more than 20 years, without adding any additional cost to taxpayers.”
Subcommittee chairman Todd Rokita said the bill would improve nutrition programs by reducing waste, fraud and abuse. “Improving community eligibility is just one way it will do so,” says the committee statement. It says community eligibility “has allowed taxpayer dollars to subsidize students who are not eligible for assistance.”
“This bill represents a step backward,” wrote Robert Greenstein, president of the think tank Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, in criticizing the proposal on community eligibility and language that would make it harder for states to use competitive bidding in the WIC program. The Food Research and Action Center said the 7,000 of the 18,000 schools now using community eligibility would be knocked out of the program.
The GOP-drafted bill would raise the threshold for schools to qualify for community eligibility, which is based on the portion of students at a school who automatically qualify for free meals, mostly because their families receive food stamps. The threshold for “identified students” now is 40 percent and would be raised to 60 percent in the bill.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the 60 percent threshold is unrealistically high. It also says schools pay a large share of the cost of meals to students not covered by the formula that estimates free-meal eligibility; multiplying the “identified student” percentage by 1.6.
In its statement, the Education Committee said “critics are using doomsday scenarios and scare tactics … Every child who is eligible to receive assistance today will remain eligible for assistance.”
Community eligibility was part of the 2010 update of child nutrition programs and is in its second year of operation.