State Senator Adam Lowe (R-Calhoun) has introduced legislation to help children in school by providing free breakfast and lunch for all students.
Senator Lowe, who sits on the State and Local Government as well as Government Operations, in explaining the legislation said, “We have three things we need to provide for our children. Safety, food and good instruction. Schools need to be as safe as possible. Our children can’t learn if they are hungry and we need to provide good instruction for them.”
The bill would requires each local school board to establish a school lunch program and a school breakfast program that provides a free breakfast and lunch to each student enrolled in a school under the board's jurisdiction.
The state will reimburse each school district the cost of providing a free breakfast and lunch to each student enrolled in the district after all available federal funds have been applied.
Senator Lowe explained that most of the state revenue collected comes from sales tax. “We are lucky that we don’t have a State Income Tax.”
Senator Lowe said the state has collected a lot of money lately. “Since it is all from sales tax and not an income tax we just don’t have a way to give the money back. And what better way to give it back to families that have kids in school. They have been paying a lot of sales tax money in buying clothes, and household food for their children. The free breakfast and lunch program is a way that we can give some of this back to the people.”
The 31st is the last day for the legislature to fill bills for the upcoming session.