Lawmakers say lunch money not threatened

BENTONVILLE — Northwest Arkansas lawmakers spent most of their time at a public forum Saturday explaining they are not trying to take kids’ lunch money.

Senate Bill 349 by Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, proposes decreasing the amount of National School Lunch State Categorical Funding if schools fall behind, for more than one year in a row, in reading scores.

“He is not proposing to take a single bite of food from any child,” Rep. Jana Della Rosa, R-Rogers, said of Clark and his bill. Her comments echoed others by lawmakers attending the 9 a.m. forum held Saturday at Bentonville’s Old High Middle School auditorium. The Rogers-Lowell and Greater Bentonville chambers of commerce co-hosted the forum, which had seven lawmakers and at least 30 audience members attending.

The extra money to schools mentioned in Clark’s bill, despite the name, is not tied to school lunches, lawmakers said. The state uses federal calculations on distribution of National School Lunch program money to measure poverty in a district. The state program being looked at by lawmakers gives state taxpayer money to districts to improve reading skills. The school lunch program standards were just a useful starting point for determining how to distribute the money.

“It is like having two different checking accounts used for entirely different things with the same name on them,” said Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville.

If a school district consistently fails to show any

progress in improving student reading, it should not continue to get money for something it is not doing, the lawmakers said.

The public reacted strongly when inaccurate news reports claimed schools with poor reading performance might loose lunch funding for poor students. At least one accurate news report was available but ignored by other outlets, Della Rosa said. “The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette had a story when this first came out that described exactly what this bill does,” she said. Della Rosa also praised the newspaper’s opinion writers for an editorial Thursday trying to clear up the misinterpretations.

In 2017, state school districts received more than $225 million in National School Lunch State Categorical Funding, according to the Bureau of Legislative Research.

The funding is disbursed at a per-student rate. That rate depends on which of three tiers a school district falls under; the tiers are determined by the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

Clark said it would likely be rare for a school district to ever lose money under his bill. If the district’s reading achievement decreases one year, its teachers must complete training for reading education. The financial penalties wouldn’t begin until consecutive years of declining achievement.

On other issues, Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Gravette, said to expect taxes on e-cigarettes before the current legislative session, although that will spark a struggle with lobbyists for the business. “There’s a storm a’coming,” he said.

Lawmakers also will propose legislation soon to either help counties update their voting machines or reimburse counties who already have, Hendren said.

Douglas told the forum he has received a surprising amount of support and encouragement for a bill he knew would be very controversial. His House Bill 1536 would allow doctors to prescribe terminally ill patients with lethal doses of medicine so the patients could end their lives.

“We treat our pets and livestock better than our humans sometimes on suffering,” he said.