Senate Bill 283, which will provide free meals for all public school students in Virginia, has passed the Senate Education and Health Committee. The bill now goes to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee for consideration.
If passed into law, all public school divisions in Virginia would be required to make meals available for free to any student unless their parent notifies the school board not to do so.
Senator Danica Roem, D-Manassas, is the patron for the bill. She said:
This is about making sure that every kid who goes to school gets fed — no questions asked.”
The proposal would cost an estimated $346 million over the next two years. The state would reimburse schools for each meal.
Some Republicans including Senator Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, reacted harshly because of 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. 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.”