The congressman pushing to decrease the number of schools that qualify for the federal school lunch program vowed last week that he would not back away from the tighter restrictions, even if “I am going to hell and I’m a monster.”
Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., said in an address to the Indianapolis Rotary Club that he sees no reason to make every student eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch when only 40% of the student body meets the criteria for participation. “Before you give 100% of the kids free lunch, whether they need it or not, this at least makes sure a majority actually qualifies for it,” he was quoted by the local Fox News affiliate as telling the audience.
Rokita is championing a measure that would not allow a school to qualify for the subsidies if less than 60% of students were disadvantaged. But he said in an aside that he’s not sure the federal government should be paying for student lunches at all. He called it “government universal feeding.”
Raising the threshold would save the federal government about $1 billion over 10 years, Rokita said. He recommended that the funds be redirected into free breakfasts and summertime meals.
Rokita’s comments stoked a controversy that has burned hot since his legislative proposal was passed by the House Education and Workforce Committee. Rokita is a member of the committee and chairman of its Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee.
Editorials in Indiana noted that the higher threshold would eliminate 120 schools from the program just in Indiana, leaving 58,000 without the midday meal assistance they currently receive.
A coalition of 750 groups nationwide has called on Congress to thwart the measure. They say Rokita’s proposal would also leave more children hungry by weakening the current regulations’ Community Eligibility Provision, which provides schools in high-poverty areas with easier access to meal subsidies. The group estimates that 7,000 schools would lose their meal funding if the stricter requirement was adopted, and 11,000 schools set to participate in the school lunch program would lose their qualification.
Rokita said he is not oblivious to the ill will he's stirred, nor to the impact of what he's championing. "You might not like everything I say today," he told the Rotary Club audience.
He concluded his presentation by saying, “If you go to my Facebook page, which I try not to do, you’ll see that I’m going to hell and I’m a monster.”
A vote by the full House on Rokita’s legislation, the Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016, has not yet been scheduled.