With Severe Budget Shortfalls, Schools Can’t Afford to Implement Unfunded Mandates
Alexandria, Va. (December 1, 2010) – As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to vote today on the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act" (S. 3307), the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter to House members yesterday cautioning that this proposed legislation "threatens to erode the very systems it is intended to help by exacerbating the budgetary crisis for schools across the country."
"Despite good intentions to improve child nutrition, this bill has numerous new and problematic requirements that taken together make it difficult if not impossible for school districts to successfully implement," said NSBA’s Executive Director Anne L. Bryant. "It creates additional burdens and unfunded mandates at a time when our school districts are facing severe budget shortfalls. Without adequate funding, schools would find it difficult to comply with the proposed new standards, reporting, training, administration, and other mandates."
A major concern is that the federal reimbursement for school meals is inadequate for most districts to cover the full cost of providing them. The U. S. Department of Agriculture reports the full cost of providing free lunches exceeds the federal reimbursement currently by more than 30 cents per meal. While S. 3307 authorizes a 6 cents increase per school lunch for districts that voluntarily adopt updated federal standards for school meals, NSBA estimates the actual increased cost of compliance ranges from 11-25 cents per meal, thus increasing the reimbursement gap that already exists. Therefore, a school district serving subsidized lunches to 5,000 students has a potential shortfall of $270,000 under the current reimbursement rate. With the increase from S. 3307, an additional $54,000 could be added to a district’s shortfall.
"In these tough economic times, the shortfall of federal funds to cover the cost of providing free lunches to children from low income families could force many school districts to eliminate more teaching and other instructional positions," said Bryant.
NSBA urges House members to vote against this bill in its current form and instead is recommending Congress pass a simple extension of the current child nutrition programs. If S. 3307 is passed without amendments, it will go to President Barack Obama as it has already been passed by the Senate.
"Local school boards across the nation are acutely aware of the importance of ensuring that children have access to healthy and nutritious food and officials at the local and state level already have taken a number of innovative steps to improve school nutrition programs," said Bryant. "These successes have proven that awareness and education – not unfunded federal mandates – will spur parents and communities to make the changes that are absolutely necessary for long-term success."
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NSBA’s position on nutrition standards in schools can be found at: http://www.nsba.org/MainMenu/Advocacy/FederalLaws/SchoolNutrition.aspx
Founded in 1940, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) is a not-for-profit organization representing state associations of school boards and their more than 90,000 local school board members throughout the U.S. Working with and through our state associations, NSBA advocates for equity and excellence in public education through school board leadership. www.nsba.org