House Bill Weakens Programs for Children

Unfortunately, the child nutrition reauthorization bill introduced  by Rep. Todd Rokita, chair of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, departs from that bipartisan history and would make the programs less effective, rather than more so, at serving low-income children. A revised version of the bill, which was released on May 17 and on which the House Education and the Workforce Committee will vote on May 18, contains some useful provisions, but its detrimental provisions significantly outweigh the sound ones.  In particular, the bill would reduce access to school meals by poor children attending some schools in low-income areas and would make it harder for state WIC programs to achieve savings through the time-honored approach of competitive bidding. The revised bill also would convert the school lunch and breakfast programs in three states to a block grant that wouldn’t respond if poverty increased and under which states could restrict eligibility for free school meals, weaken nutrition standards, and shift some funds to other uses.