COLUMBUS, Ohio — A group of high schoolers from across Ohio rallied at the Statehouse, pleading with lawmakers to make breakfast and lunch free for students.
School lunch isn’t just a period to socialize with your friends — it can be a lifeline for kids.
"They helped to make sure we had a meal every day that we were at school, 'cause that might not have always been the case at home when my mom was going through everything," Corbin Eaton, a junior at Antwerp High School in Paulding County, told me.
Data from Feeding America reports that one in five Ohio children is unsure of where their next meal is coming from. Eaton was one of them. But once his school got involved and helped offer free and reduced lunches, he knew he could get through the day.
"I think that without them, we wouldn't be able to eat every day during school, which makes our academic performance lower than what it should be," he said about the importance of lunch.
It would cost $300 million per fiscal year to provide meals for all public and charter schools in the state, which is less than 1% of the proposed state budget.
The students are hoping to get this in the state budget, but they are also agreeable to a bill that would accomplish the exact same thing that was just recently introduced.
State Sens. Bill Blessing (R-Colerain Township) and Kent Smith (D-Euclid) introduced bipartisan S.B. 109, which would provide free breakfast and lunch to public and chartered nonpublic school students.
RELATED: Ohio lawmakers propose making breakfast, lunch free at schools
Donovan O’Neil with conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity warned about the price tag.
"When we hear ideas floated out there that would increase the obligation that the state has, whether it's for school lunches or something else, we're going to throw up the caution flag and encourage folks to take a good hard look if this is really where the state needs to be prioritizing its spending," O'Neil said.
The budget isn’t just a concern for advocates like O’Neil — it is for schools, too.
Ohio Republican leadership is proposing to cut more than $650 million in public education funding.
Our extensive reporting on threats to public school funding led to massive backlash for lawmakers, and numerous GOP members spoke out privately.
RELATED: DeWine tries to protect school funding after GOP proposes cuts
And now, there is another bill that educators say could increase costs for them. H.B. 145 would increase the number of instructional hours in K-12 schools from a minimum of 1,001 hours to 1,054.
"The more time students spend on meaningful learning, the better they’re going to perform academically," state Rep. Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) said.
This is an effort, in part, to make up for learning loss during the pandemic, Bird added during his press conference introducing the legislation.
RELATED: Republicans want to increase Ohio’s school year to a minimum of 1,054 instructional hours
But Parma City Schools Superintendent Charles Smialek said that with the way the state keeps cutting the budget for public schools, they will be forced to decrease the amount of classes.
"You would eliminate electives," Smialek said. "You would be looking at, 'what exactly does it take to graduate from high school and then eliminate anything else."
This is an unfunded mandate, he argued, telling the lawmakers they can't both cut their funding and increase the hours teachers need to be in school. They would be forced to cut staff with budget cuts.
Plus, more instructional time drives home how important meals are.
"Money's tight still," Eaton said. "I think something, hopefully, will get done about it."
These policies will continue to be debated in the coming months.
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