As free school meals near passage, Minnesota districts worry about funding tied to aid

Willie Lumpkins drove twice as much for work in 2022 as he did the year before. At the same time, food and fuel prices were hitting record highs in the Twin Cities and across the country.

His son, who also is named Willie, was enrolled in a public charter school at the time and qualified for free meals.

"You don't know how much stress that takes off a parent," Lumpkins said of the financial relief.

That meal benefit was extended to all students as part of the federal government's pandemic relief efforts. Now that the national program has expired, Democrats in St. Paul are pushing forward with universal school meals legislation that's likely to land on Gov. Tim Walz's desk. While there's broad agreement that students need nutritious meals, critics and supporters have questioned the legislation's price tag and the way it could alter how schools qualify for funding to help their neediest learners.

The measure, approved on a party-line vote in the House earlier this month, would cost about $441 million to provide free lunch and breakfast in every school over the next two years — an amount that could be covered by the state's $17.6 billion budget surplus for now. It still needs to be considered by the Senate.

"Obviously, as a school system, we're excited about the fact that our kids will be fed. A student needs to be well-nourished to learn," said Bill Adams, assistant superintendent of the Willmar district.

But he and other school administrators say automatically offering every student a free breakfast and lunch will make it more difficult to collect paperwork that families typically fill out to determine eligibility. Those forms also determine how much state funding districts receive for a host of other programs, from efforts to curb truancy to extra support for students learning English and those in remedial classes.

Republicans also have voiced concern that the bill would cover meals regardless of a family's ability to pay. Rep. Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, said she would have liked some sort of means testing to ensure the benefit was tailored for families who need it.

"I don't know of anybody who disagrees with the idea that if a kid can't afford lunch, we should provide that for them," she said. "Paying for everybody, no matter their income, doesn't make sense to me."

Rep. Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis, authored the bill and said the current system for determining who qualifies for a free meal is insufficient.

According to the advocacy group Hunger Solutions, one in six students in Minnesota experiences food insecurity. And 25% of them live in a household that doesn't qualify for free meals.

Jordan argues it's not unreasonable for parents to expect schools will provide meals the way they do other essential items.

"We don't means test for who gets a desk or who gets a locker," she said.

School lunch forms 'a proxy for poverty'

For years, Minnesota districts determined which students qualified for free meals by having parents submit a form that included their income and household size.

This year, Minnesota is among a handful of states that began using Medicaid enrollment to identify students who qualify for free meals. The process is known as direct certification — the state Department of Human Services shares its benefits rolls with the Department of Education to help districts figure out who qualifies.

Jordan and other lawmakers say the free-lunch forms have long been used as "a proxy for poverty" and present a paperwork problem if districts struggle to collect them.

"That's not to say it isn't a real problem, but paperwork should never be a barrier to accessing services," she said.

But school officials say the direct certification process doesn't catch everyone who is eligible, and if meals are free, families don't have an incentive to fill out the free- and reduced-price lunch paperwork.

During the 2018-19 academic year, the Anoka-Hennepin district collected more than $8.5 million from students buying meals at school — and Chief Financial Officer Michelle Vargas said she isn't as worried about losing that revenue. The legislation funds meals.

She worries the ripple effects of an undercount of students who qualify for free meals may cost the district millions in state funding, known as compensatory revenue, for other essential programs.

In fall 2019, nearly a third of the students in the Anoka-Hennepin district qualified for a free lunch. Two years later, about 29% did.

That decline of about three points equates to about $3 million in lost state and federal aid, she said, noting that's enough to fund about 30 staff positions.

"It doesn't sound huge. It is huge," Vargas said. "Where do you cut those positions from? That could be teachers, counselors, interventionists."

In Willmar, even with the direct certification process, Adams said district officials still had to track down 700 parents — nearly one in eight students enrolled there — to fill out the form.

He and Vargas both say they've discussed their funding concerns with legislators.

Earlier this month, Rep. Sandra Feist, DFL-New Brighton, introduced a bill offering revisions to the compensatory aid formula that would tie such funding to other metrics, such as the percentage of English language learners or homeless students in the district.

Still, supporters of the free school meals bill say the legislation would be transformative and point to the precarious financial situation of many families in recent years.

Predicting the financial future

Lumpkins' son started at Benilde-St. Margaret in the fall. The private Catholic school doesn't participate in the National School Lunch Program, which means Willie Jr. still will have to rely on a scholarship to pay for his meals, even if the free lunch legislation passes.

But Lumpkins still supports the bill and noted that the free meals would be a boon for families in north Minneapolis, especially as grocers pull out of the area.

Besides, he said, a family's financial picture can easily change overnight.

"They could be rich today and poor tomorrow," Lumpkins said.

Bennett, the Republican representative, made a similar argument against universal free meals for the state as a whole. Minnesota is sitting on a surplus this year, she said, but that won't always be the case.

"What happens when we're down two to three years when we're on a leaner budget?" she said.