This article was originally published in Virginia Mercury.
A bill that would provide free meals for all public school students in Virginia passed the Senate Education and Health Committee Thursday.
“This is about making sure that every kid who goes to school gets fed — no questions asked,” said Sen. Danica Roem, D-Manassas, the patron for Senate Bill 283 , earlier this month.
The proposal would cost an estimated $346 million over the next two years.
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Some Republicans including Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, balked at the cost.
“I just obviously do not want any child to go hungry and do not want any child who cannot afford a meal to go hungry, either breakfast or lunch, but I just think at this point, I’m not quite ready to say that the commonwealth is going to pay for breakfast and lunch for every child in the commonwealth when you got [wealthy] counties,” Peake said. “I just don’t see that we should take general fund dollars to pay for breakfast and lunch in some of the wealthiest counties in the commonwealth.”