Arkansas lawmakers give initial approval to legislation to provide students free breakfast
A legislative panel on Wednesday approved a bill to provide free breakfast to Arkansas students regardless of their eligibility for the federal free or reduced-price meal program beginning with the 2025-2026 academic year.
Lead sponsor Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, told the Senate Education Committee Wednesday that Senate Bill 59 would first use federally available funds to support the initiative before tapping into state resources. State funding would come through the Food Insecurity Fund, which would be created by SB 59 and consist of money from general revenue, private grants and medical marijuana taxes.
'We ask these kids to be in school, we actually mandate that they be in school,' Dismang said. 'We want them to be successful. Let's give them the basic tool to be successful and that is to start the day without an empty stomach.'
A steady job doesn't guarantee food on the table for many Arkansans
At a rate of nearly 19%, Arkansas had the highest prevalence of food insecurity in 2023, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released in September. One in four Arkansas children face hunger, according to Feeding America.
Federal funding supported free meals for all students during the COVID-19 pandemic and a number of states have since considered legislation that would continue the practice. Some states like California and Minnesota have passed laws to provide universal free school meals.
SB 59 builds on Dismang's work during the 2023 legislative session when Arkansas lawmakers approved a bill to cover the copayment for low-income students who qualify for reduced-price meals, and a bill that would allow money from the General Revenue Fund to be placed in a Restricted Reserve Fund to address food insecurity and health needs.
Because medical marijuana funds would be used to support the free breakfast initiative, Sen. Joshua Bryant, R-Rogers, asked if there would be any concern about the funding source should a state legislator try to further restrict the expansion of medical marijuana. Dismang said he's not worried because the industry was created through a constitutional amendment.
Arkansas voters first approved medical marijuana in 2016 and it has since grown into a billion-dollar industry. State tax revenue from medical marijuana surpassed $31 million in 2024, according to data released by state officials Wednesday.
Providing students free breakfast under SB 59 could cost an estimated $14.7 million, according to a fiscal impact statement. That's likely 'on the high side' but Dismang said he wanted to use conservative estimates and noted that covering the cost of reduced-price meals following passage of his 2023 bill has not come close to its $6 million estimate.
SB 59 also prioritizes the use of money from the Food Insecurity Fund, which must first cover copayments for reduced meals and the state's participation in the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program before funds can be used for the breakfast program, Dismang said.
Summer EBT set to continue in 2025, pending further Arkansas legislative approval
Arkansas last year opted into the Summer EBT program, a new federal assistance program that provides $120 in food benefits to students during summer break. Dismang said it was 'wildly successful' and cost an estimated $2.9 million.
Though no one spoke against the bill in committee Wednesday, policy organization Opportunity Arkansas in a social media post assigned SB 59 an 'F'-ranking, arguing the legislation would 'grow government and increase dependency.'
'This bill would provide for 'free' universal school breakfasts for all Arkansas students — even those from high-income families,' the post states.
Addressing the criticism in committee, Dismang said this approach is similar to schools purchasing laptops and other tools for families who have the means to purchase these resources on their own.
'To me this is no different,' he said. 'Let's let them start out on the right foot. Let's let them have the option and let's do something about the food insecurity problems we have here in the state.'
Those sentiments were echoed by two employees of the Conway School District who spoke in favor of the bill because it would help the district address unpaid student meal charges and free up money to be used on other things like safety. The district has $317,000 in unpaid meal charges as of Wednesday, Conway School District Food Service Director Maegan Brown said.
A 2019 bill requires public schools to provide students a meal and prohibits them from stigmatizing children unable to pay. The law allows schools to request payment from parents, but there are no consequences for failure to pay so districts incur debt, Brown said.
Regulations prohibit districts from using federal food-service funds to cover student meal debt, so the district must ultimately find a way to pay for it once a student graduates or drops out, she said.
Bryant questioned what the incentive would be for parents to fill out forms to help the state qualify for federal funding if they know they'll receive meals regardless.
Superintendent Jeff Collum agreed it's a risk, but said he's open to trying SB 59's breakfast program because the district will have to continue paying on bad debt no matter what.
'It may hurt us, it may hurt us before it gets better, but if we were to err, it would be let's feed the babies as much as we can and we'll figure it out, the way we're trying to figure it out now,' Collum said.
The House Education Committee unanimously approved SB 59 on a voice vote, and it will next be heard by the full House.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
2 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Ousted vaccine panel members say rigorous science is being abandoned
NEW YORK (AP) — The 17 experts who were ousted from a government vaccine committee last month say they have little faith in what the panel has become, and have outlined possible alternative ways to make U.S. vaccine policy. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, accusing them of being too closely aligned with manufacturers and of rubber-stamping vaccines. He handpicked replacements that include several vaccine skeptics. In a commentary published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the former panel members wrote that Kennedy — a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before becoming the U.S. government's top health official — and his new panel are abandoning rigorous scientific review and open deliberation. That was clear, they said, during the new panel's first meeting , in June. It featured a presentation by an anti-vaccine advocate that warned of dangers about a preservative used in a few flu vaccines, but the committee members didn't hear from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staffers about an analysis that concluded there was no link between the preservative and neurodevelopmental disorders. The new panel recommended that the preservative, thimerosal , be removed even as some members acknowledged there was no proof it was causing harm. 'That meeting was a travesty, honestly,' said former ACIP member Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Stanford University. The 17 discharged experts last month published a shorter essay in the Journal of the American Medical Association that decried Kennedy's 'destabilizing decisions.' The focus was largely on their termination and on Kennedy's decision in May to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women. In the new commentary, the ousted committee members took it one step further and prescribed some steps that could be taken to maintain scientifically sound vaccine recommendations. 'An alternative to the Committee should be established quickly and — if necessary — independently from the federal government,' they wrote. 'No viable pathway exists to fully replace the prior trusted and unbiased ACIP structure and process. Instead, the alternatives must focus on limiting the damage to vaccination policy in the United States.' Options included having professional organizations working together to harmonize vaccine recommendations or establishing an external auditor of ACIP recommendations. There are huge challenges to the ideas, including having access to the best data, the authors acknowledged. There's also the question of whether health insurers would pay for vaccinations that are recommended by alternative groups but not ACIP. They might pick and choose which vaccines to cover, said the University of North Carolina's Noel Brewer, another former ACIP member. For example, they might pay for vaccines that offer more immediate cost savings for health care, like the flu vaccine. 'But maybe not ones that have a longer-term benefit like HPV vaccine,' which is designed to prevent futures cancers, Brewer said. Officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Hamilton Spectator
2 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
More Trump administration figures who met Laura Loomer's ire are out. A look at her influence
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump has downplayed the influence of Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur known for her incendiary social media presence, in his administration's decision-making. But the list of administration officials who have drawn Loomer's ire and swiftly thereafter gotten the axe from Trump has been growing. Among the latest is Dr. Vinay Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration's polarizing vaccine chief, who announced this week he was leaving the agency after a brief tenure that drew the ire of biotech executives, patient groups and conservative allies of Trump. Prasad had recently become a target of right-wing activists, including Loomer, who flagged Prasad's past statements criticizing Trump and praising liberal independent Sen. Bernie Sanders . On Wednesday, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll directed the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to remove Jen Easterly , a newly announced hire who led the nation's cybersecurity agency under President Joe Biden , shortly after Loomer criticized her. Loomer, who has publicly encouraged Trump to purge aides who she believes are insufficiently loyal to the 'Make America Great Again' agenda, has taken credit for some of the ousters, tearing into some of Trump's allies and advisers and calling out what she calls a 'vetting crisis' within the White House. Trump, meanwhile, has long praised Loomer while distancing himself at times from her most controversial comments and downplaying her direct impact on his choices. Here's a rundown on connections between Loomer's criticism and Trump administration departures: Vocal opposition to Health and Human Services appointees Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Prasad was ousted following several recent controversies. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel matters. Last week, Loomer posted on X of Prasad, 'How did this Trump-hating Bernie Bro get into the Trump admin???' Prasad did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning. He joined the FDA in May after years as an academic researcher at the University of California , San Francisco, where he frequently criticized the FDA's approach to drug approvals and COVID-19 vaccines. Loomer was also vocal in opposition to Trump's first choice for surgeon general, whose selection was ultimately withdrawn. Trump pulled the nomination of former Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat just before Senate confirmation hearings in May. Loomer had posted on X that 'we can't have a pro-COVID vaccine nepo appointee who is currently embroiled in a medical malpractice case and who didn't go to medical school in the US' as the surgeon general. Criticism for 'Biden holdovers' Driscoll's directive that West Point remove Easterly , shared on X , came just a day after she was announced as the Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in West Point's social sciences department. Easterly had served as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, facing harsh criticism from Republicans who argued that her work to counter misinformation about elections and the COVID-19 pandemic amounted to censorship. On Tuesday, Loomer posted on X about Easterly's new role at West Point, saying 'Biden holdovers' at the Defense Department were 'undermining' Trump's administration. Prompting departures at the National Security Council On April 3, Loomer presented 'research findings' to Trump, Vice President JD Vance , chief of staff Susie Wiles and others including then-national security adviser Mike Waltz , during an Oval Office meeting, according to people speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. A day later, Trump said he had fired 'some' White House National Security Council officials, downplaying Loomer's influence on the moves. The departures included the director of the National Security Agency, Air Force Gen. Tim Haugh , who also oversaw the Pentagon's Cyber Command, along with Haugh's civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble. When reached for comment, Loomer referred The Associated Press to an X post, saying she was not going to divulge any details about her Oval Office meeting with Trump 'out of respect' for the president. In a subsequent X post, Loomer appeared to take credit for the firings, writing, 'You know how you know the NSC officials I reported to President Trump are disloyal people who have played a role in sabotaging Donald Trump?' She noted, 'the fired officials' were being defended by Trump critics on CNN and MSNBC. Loomer called for Waltz's ouster in the weeks following revelations he had mistakenly added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief to a Signal chat being used to discuss military plans. As reports began to circulate that Waltz could be leaving the administration — he was ultimately nominated as United Nations ambassador — she appeared to take credit, writing 'SCALP' in an X post. A 'pressure campaign' targeting the Justice Department Adam Schleifer, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, received an email in March saying he was being terminated 'on behalf of President Donald J. Trump,' according to a person familiar with the matter. The email came exactly an hour after Loomer called for him to be fired in a social media post that highlighted Schleifer's past critical comments about Trump while Schleifer was running in a Democratic primary for a congressional seat in New York. Earlier this month, Loomer took a victory lap after the Justice Department fired Maurene Comey , the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a federal prosecutor in Manhattan who worked on the cases against Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Jeffrey Epstein , three people familiar with the matter told The AP. Comey's ouster, Loomer said on X, followed her two-month 'pressure campaign.' Has Loomer spoken out about others? Yes, chief among them Attorney General Pam Bondi . Loomer has called for Bondi's resignation over failure to keep promises to release more files from the Justice Department's sex trafficking investigation of Epstein, branding her a 'total liar.' Earlier this month, following DOJ's revelations that no Epstein 'client list' existed and no more files would be released, Loomer posted on X that she was told that FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino was 'seriously thinking about resigning' amid his ongoing clashes with Bondi over the case. Weeks later, both Bondi and Bongino were still on the job. What has Trump said about Loomer's role? In April, Trump denied that Loomer had anything to do with aides being ousted from their jobs at the National Security Council, calling her a 'very good patriot and a very strong person' who only made recommendations. 'Sometimes I listen to those recommendations, like I do with everybody,' Trump said then, adding: 'She's usually very constructive. She recommended certain people for jobs.' Loomer was seen traveling with Trump during last year's campaign, accompanying him on a trip to New York and Pennsylvania as he commemorated the 9/11 attacks. She also traveled with Trump to Philadelphia for a debate against then-Vice President Kamala Harris . Loomer said she never officially joined the campaign after Trump's allies preferred he would keep his distance. After a Harris-related post on X in which Loomer played on racist stereotypes , Trump called Loomer 'a supporter of mine' with 'strong opinions,' but denied knowledge of her comments. He later posted on his Truth Social account that he disagreed with what she had said. ___ Kinnard can be reached at .
24 minutes ago
Ousted vaccine panel members say rigorous science is being abandoned
NEW YORK -- The 17 experts who were ousted from a government vaccine committee last month say they have little faith in what the panel has become, and have outlined possible alternative ways to make U.S. vaccine policy. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, accusing them of being too closely aligned with manufacturers and of rubber-stamping vaccines. He handpicked replacements that include several vaccine skeptics. In a commentary published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the former panel members wrote that Kennedy — a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before becoming the U.S. government's top health official — and his new panel are abandoning rigorous scientific review and open deliberation. That was clear, they said, during the new panel's first meeting, in June. It featured a presentation by an anti-vaccine advocate that warned of dangers about a preservative used in a few flu vaccines, but the committee members didn't hear from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staffers about an analysis that concluded there was no link between the preservative and neurodevelopmental disorders. The new panel recommended that the preservative, thimerosal, be removed even as some members acknowledged there was no proof it was causing harm. 'That meeting was a travesty, honestly,' said former ACIP member Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Stanford University. The 17 discharged experts last month published a shorter essay in the Journal of the American Medical Association that decried Kennedy's 'destabilizing decisions." The focus was largely on their termination and on Kennedy's decision in May to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women. In the new commentary, the ousted committee members took it one step further and prescribed some steps that could be taken to maintain scientifically sound vaccine recommendations. 'An alternative to the Committee should be established quickly and — if necessary — independently from the federal government," they wrote. 'No viable pathway exists to fully replace the prior trusted and unbiased ACIP structure and process. Instead, the alternatives must focus on limiting the damage to vaccination policy in the United States.' Options included having professional organizations working together to harmonize vaccine recommendations or establishing an external auditor of ACIP recommendations. There are huge challenges to the ideas, including having access to the best data, the authors acknowledged. There's also the question of whether health insurers would pay for vaccinations that are recommended by alternative groups but not ACIP. They might pick and choose which vaccines to cover, said the University of North Carolina's Noel Brewer, another former ACIP member. For example, they might pay for vaccines that offer more immediate cost savings for health care, like the flu vaccine. 'But maybe not ones that have a longer-term benefit like HPV vaccine,' which is designed to prevent futures cancers, Brewer said. Officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ___
