Democratic leaders of the state Senate began the General Assembly session hoping to provide universal free breakfasts for public school students. But funding is not in the budget they're now considering.
$37 million a year. That's the cost of providing universal free school breakfasts for public school students across Virginia. It was a top priority for Senate Democrats, but the effort failed and there's no funding for it in either the House budget or the Senate budget.
"If it's one-time funding, those tend to be simpler conversations, not necessarily easier but simpler conversations," says Senator Danica Roem, a Democrat from Manassas. "The ask that we have is by having a bill for this, not just a budget amendment, is to do this every year as a matter of the policy of the Commonwealth every school year, universal free school breakfast."
The Senate budget includes $500 million for tax rebates. But no money for universal free breakfasts.
"We continue to hear, year after year, that we are in agreement on the policy but the funding costs too much and that it's too expensive," says Emily Moore with the American Heart Association. "This year we even received unanimous support in the Senate, bipartisan support, on the policy. But the hurdle continues to be that the legislature feels that the price tag is too high to feed kids."
One item that is in the Senate version of the budget: new money to help school divisions replace outdated equipment and support hiring new cafeteria workers. The House version of the budget does not have that new money, and the two chambers are expected to work out their differences next week.
