21-02-2025
VT Universal School Meals Program being debated again
MONTPELIER, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) – People of all ages gave Governor Phil Scott something to chew this week, as they argue he's trying to take food away from Vermont students.
Recently, Governor Scott proposed cutting the Universal School Meals Program, an initiative started in 2023 that provides all Vermont students with free breakfast and lunch at school every day. After Vermonters dealt with high property tax increases and school funding fiascos last year, Scott says a top priority again this year is making Vermont more affordable, and says that means cutting back on government spending.
In his latest budget proposal, Scott said his administration was able to carve out $77 million dollars to bring down taxes, and the Universal School Meals Program is included in the cuts. Wednesday afternoon, the governor said he still doesn't like the fact that the program makes every Vermonter, including those living in poverty, pay more in taxes, while also giving free food to children from wealthy families.
'Asking less-fortunate families to support those more-affluent families isn't the right approach, and I think that we need to roll that back and be more pragmatic,' Gov. Scott said. 'We put forward a proposal that we thought was attainable, acceptable. We were asking to go back to what we had previous to Universal Meals, like, what, a year ago?'
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However, Vermont Democrats, school board members and students have many counterarguments, which they aired out at the Vermont State House Thursday afternoon.
'Hungry kids can't learn! Please help kids,' one elementary school student said at the event.
Speakers pointed to facts like the high participation rates seen in the program and benefits that appear to be connected to it, like increased student engagement and decreased behavioral outbursts since Universal School Meals started two school years ago.
Advocates also said the program doesn't actually cost Vermonters that much in taxes, and argue getting rid of it would be more costly than keeping it in place.
'Apparently, the Governor doesn't do his math homework, because he completely forgot to put anything in the budget for Universal School Meals,' said Democratic State Senator Joe Major, the Vice Chair of the Vermont Senate Agriculture Committee. 'It costs Vermont taxpayers 30 dollars a year to fund this program. That's $2.50 a month. Do the math, Mr. Governor.'
'Almost $17 million dollars in federal funding will come to Vermont, if we have this program, for farmers, as well as this program,' Sen. Major added. 'Do the math, Mr. Governor,' he repeated.
'Every dollar spent on school meals returns over two dollars to our local economy,' said Robert Carpenter, Chair of the Essex Westford School District Board. 'The real cost that is not being discussed at all that is bankrupting our schools is health insurance. Please, Governor, do not scapegoat Universal School Meals. Cutting Universal School Meals will not save taxpayers money, but will result in the middle class and the vulnerable children of our state falling through the gaps.'
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'I'll say one thing to Governor Scott: We don't need to make Vermont more affordable on the backs of our children,' said Bobby Starr, a retired Democratic State Senator who served for nearly 50 years. 'To try to think that we're going to make Vermont more affordable by taking away kids' food is really a bad idea. And it's not costing us a lot of money.'
Furthermore, advocated note how the program has helped reduce stigma for kids whose families might not be able to afford hot lunch every day.
'Under the old system, unpaid lunch bills created a situation of telling students they could not have the hot lunch option until the bill was paid,' said Gaston Bathalon, Chair of the North Country Supervisory Union School Board. 'With the Universal School Meals Program, the cafeteria is now a place of nourishment, and not stress, for these students. No child has to worry about whether they have enough money in their lunch account. No child has to feel different because of their economic situation.'
'The fallout of food insecurity costs so much more to fix than it costs to prevent,' said Carpenter.
Facing more questions Wednesday afternoon, Governor Scott added that funding Universal School Meals would be nice in a perfect world, but noted the state is still dealing with many costly crises.
'None of us want to be in this position, but we're going to have to make some difficult choices over the years,' Scott said.
When Gov. Scott allowed the Universal School Meals Program to become law on June 14, 2023 without his signature, Vermont became the sixth state in the country to enact a free school meals program, joining Maine, California, Colorado, Minnesota and New Mexico. Since then, Massachusetts and Michigan have also joined the list.
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