20% getting free lunches at school may be ineligible

One of every five youngsters who gets free or discounted meals at school may be ineligible because the family's income is too high, a government-commissioned study says.

The Agriculture Department, which runs the lunch program, says billions of dollars in education aid, including grants for computer hookups, are divided up on the basis of the lunch numbers, encouraging school officials to push the figures higher.

About 13 million children received free meals last year, and an additional 2.6 million paid a discounted price, a maximum of 40 cents per meal.

"I don't want to decrease the number of kids that participate if they are eligible to receive it . . . (or) deter eligible children from receiving these benefits," said Eric Bost, the Department of Agriculture's undersecretary for food and nutrition programs.

But Bost also said millions of ineligible children reaping a benefit for which their families don't qualify is a problem that demands a solution.

Schools rely upon parents to report their income properly, and they check the financial records of no more than 3 percent of families to verify eligibility. Some schools even provide incentives to parents, including free raffle tickets, to get them to apply for free or discounted meals for their children.

Studies that are done annually for the department by Mathematica Policy Research, an independent research firm, indicate that the error rate grew rapidly in the 1990s. In 1999, the latest year for which data was available, the lunch rolls were 27 percent higher than they should have been, based on an analysis of census data. That's up from 23 percent in 1998 and just 5 percent in 1994.

The issue has divided school officials. The American School Food Service Association, which represents school nutritionists, says there's obviously a problem. "While there is room to argue the size . . . it is very likely that there may be children approved who should not be," said Marcia Smith, the group's president and school food director in Polk County, Fla.

But Bruce Hunter, associate executive director of public policy for the American Association of School Administrators, said the Bush administration is just looking for a way to cut school spending. "For every child who is enrolled who ought not to be, there is a child who is not enrolled who should be," he said.

Bost, who briefed a congressional committee recently on the problem, said in an interview he is working with the Education Department to find a way to correct the numbers without requiring a lot of new paperwork. That could include asking for new congressional authority to tighten the scrutiny of the applications, he said.

Because so much money is at stake, "this has resulted in some schools allowing ineligible students to enroll in the program," Bost said. Education Department officials had no comment on the issue.

A family of four with an annual income of up to $22,945 can qualify this year for free school meals.

About two years ago here in Buffalo, there was a local story about ending the public school "free lunch" program because not enough children were found to be eligable.

There was a big drive to find needy kids.

I guess they "created" more than they found.

Before we decided to get our children the heck out of there, the school CONSTANTLY sent home sign up sheets with the kids. They even called us at home.
Being a one income family, we may have been eligable, but we didn't feel we needed it. The kids ate better than what the school was offering. Our kids shouldn't be eating that junk!
You bet they force the issue, and I wouldn't be suprised to find out they filled out some of those forms themselves - "For the sake of the children", of course.

Because so much money is at stake, "this has resulted in some schools allowing ineligible students to enroll in the program," Bost said.

Well, duh! Do these guys think that socialism works, or what? Guess they didn't catch the news from Eastern Europe in the '90s.

A few years ago, I was told by a friend and co-worker about the "endangered school" his kids attended in Friendswood, Texas. The endangered status was based, he said on the percentage of kids on the school lunch program. The principal, my friend said, was trying to get him to enroll his kids in the program, and he, of course, refused.

My friend, an electronics engineer with a master's degree, obviously made too much money to qualify. Friendswood is a money-and-brains neighborhood, a bedroom community for the Johnson Space Center. Nobody there qualifies for the school lunch program.

In Azle, Texas, kids in summer school are not means tested at all. Guy I work with makes $55,000 a year and his wife works too, but when their kid had to attend summer school, he got free lunches.

People making minumum wage paid taxes to subsidize another person making 4 times as much.

Socialism is wrong in any of it's forms.

said the Bush administration is just looking for a way to cut school spending. "For every child who is enrolled who ought not to be, there is a child who is not enrolled who should be,"

It's a VAST RIIGHT WING CONSPIRACY!!!
I can see the NEA propaganda already.

And so goes the problem with government entering into a job that's more rightly served by the free market. Let's create a huge bureaucracy called elementary schools. Wait those kids need to eat let's create another program ffor that. Hey those kids need to get to school, let's buy busses. They need sports, let's build a football field. Etc, etc.

A lot of funding is based on % of kids on free and reduced lunch.

Both government programs and some private sector grants are based on these stats.....therefore schools beg and plead parents to sign up for the lunch plans.

it's a lot like how some schools rush to sign kids up for special-ed - with numbers come $$$$$$

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.