Debatable -- Should Wisconsin have mandatory school breakfast?

By Brent Killackey

Tuesday, February 8, 2005 2:09 AM CST

RACINE COUNTY - Every public school in South Carolina, Vermont and Rhode Island provides students with an opportunity to eat breakfast.

Offering a breakfast program is law in those states.

Currently, 26 states have some sort of requirement - most often triggered by reaching some percentage of students qualifying for free and reduced-price lunches - to offer breakfast at school.

Should Wisconsin enact something similar? The question, not surprisingly, comes down to cost. While breakfast programs have been shown to help low-income students do better in school, they require cash-strapped districts like Racine Unified to come up with money, as well as the time for kids to eat before school. Some local schools have found the program unworkable - and most do not have a formal breakfast for hungry

students.

The Illinois Legislature is considering some type of breakfast mandate at schools when 40 percent or more of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Illinois and Wisconsin - which does not require schools to offer breakfast programs - ranked among the bottom five states in serving breakfast to low-income children, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center.

Studies have consistently shown the benefits of ensuring students get a good breakfast, research also has shown that many students go without, lacking either food or time.

"Breakfast has been shown to increase test scores and decrease attendance problems," said Randy Rosso, senior policy analyst with the Food Research and Action Center.

Twelve of Unified's schools voluntarily participate in the school breakfast program.

At those schools, officials have noted improved health, learning and engagement, according to Linda Flashinski, Unified's director of communication and public affairs.

Even though the program is considered valuable, the decision to participate has been left up to individual schools. Those that choose not to serve breakfast do so for a variety of reasons, including difficulty finding space, the expense of supervision and challenges squeezing breakfast before school.

West Ridge Elementary School stopped participating in the breakfast program because it was making students late for class. The school still keeps breakfast bars and juice on hand for distribution on a case-by-case basis.

Unified's breakfast program currently operates at a break-even point from federal and state reimbursements, but forcing the program upon all schools might tilt the balance, particularly with increased costs of supervising students.

"If the mandate is covered financially, and there's a guarantee that it will stay funded, then it would be very important, especially for our low income and at-risk students," Flashinski said.

But money still wouldn't solve Unified's issues of finding space in old school buildings and fitting breakfast before classes start - unless it draws upon the example of the school district in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Students there dine on breakfast in the classroom.

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