H. R. 610 - Education

My friend is a sped teacher at a primarily low income school. She bought one of her students a winter coat because the kid didn't have one, and we live where it gets -20*F (or colder) actual temperature. When the kid came to school two days later without the coat, she said her mom told her she "needed it more" and sent the kid to school in a hooded sweatshirt. In the dead of winter. So yes, sadly there are parents out there who would probably take that money and spend it on who knows what, but definitely not for the benefit of educating their child. 

I agree that there are a lot of successful homeschoolers, but there are better ways to provide support to those efforts than this.

Darcy Collins I would say high level student athletes are the exception and not the rule and the majority of kids eating school lunch (especially at the elementary level) would not fall into that category. I would be willing to bet there is a bigger problem with childhood obesity than there is with student athletes not getting enough high quality calories. I volunteer in my kid's 1st grade classroom roughly every three weeks, and on the days I volunteer I stay and have lunch with her and her friends in the school cafeteria so I see firsthand what is going on there. I think the biggest challenge with getting kids to eat isn't what is or isn't on their tray, it's the fact that they barely have 15 minutes to sit down and actually eat it once they have it.

Our school works in partnership with local health initiatives (Power Up for Kids) to make kids aware of what healthy food choices are because some of them never even see a vegetable at home. School lunch today looks a LOT different than it did when I was a kid, both in terms of what the choices are as well as how the food looks and tastes. I remember being in high school and many kids would routinely choose a pack of French fries and a malt as their meal and I don't know if that would fly today. (My only kid is in elementary and I'm not sure what happens at the high school level.)

Our kids here also have an additional mandatory "nutrition break" either in the morning or in the afternoon depending on what time their lunch falls. They are supposed to bring in a non-perishable "healthy snack" daily to eat at that time. Unfortunately many of their best choices are limited because they can't bring in anything with peanuts, tree nuts, etc., so many nut based protein bars are automatically ruled out because they eat the snack in their classroom alongside the kids with allergies.