Free School Lunches

Question A: Universal free school lunches will improve student outcomes such as test scores and graduation rates.

Question B: Universal free school lunches will promote equitable outcomes in Ohio’s K-12 education system.

Question A: Universal free school lunches will improve student outcomes such as test scores and graduation rates.

Economist	Institution	Opinion	Confidence	Comment
Jonathan Andreas	Bluffton University	Agree	6	Just about anything that makes the school environment nicer will have some effect on test scores, and improving nutrition also directly improves test scores. Unfortunately, the effect on scores will probably be almost too small to measure because most poor kids already get free lunches and most non-poor kids get adequate lunches too, so the number of kids who will have improved nutrition is a small percentage. However, it will also reduce the stress on poor kids who are stigmatized for getting free lunches (something I remember well as a poor kid) and that will help their test scores. If test scores were the only goal, this would be a very inefficient method for improving test scores relative to other ways to spend the money, but policymakers clearly also have other goals too.
David Brasington	University of Cincinnati	Uncertain	8	It will help children who otherwise wouldn't get the food, but this is a sufficiently small number of students that it wouldn't move the needle. My children also don't like the food school offers, so take-up might be low, too low to make the cost worthwhile.
Ron Cheung	Oberlin College	Agree	8
Kevin Egan	University of Toledo	Strongly Agree	8	Even if parents can easily afford it this would free them from cumbersome paperwork to sign up and pay each month for student meal plans...just use everyone's tax dollars and save all parents the hassle...they will appreciate it. Moreover, it is vital students are well fed in order to focus and learn. And the truth is the school day can be long and many students don't plan on having enough food.
Vinnie Gajjala	Tiffin Univeristy	Strongly Agree	10
Will Georgic	Ohio Wesleyan University	Strongly Agree	10	There is an abundant body of literature that finds that universal free school lunches not only improve average test scores and overall academic performance (Gordanier et al. 2020 among others), but also reduce suspensions (Gordon and Ruffini 2018). While not every student's academic achievement will improve, the average effect for all students will be unambiguously positive.
Bob Gitter	Ohio Wesleyan University	Strongly Agree	9	Hungry children do not do as well in school.
Christian Imboden	Bowling Green State University	Agree	7	Given that some students endure food insecurity, which is known to take up a lot of cognition, this will hopefully reduce that source of stress and allow students to better focus on their studies. Decreasing food insecurity will probably have the impact of raising measurable IQ by a few points.
Michael Jones	University of Cincinnati	Uncertain	7
Charles Kroncke	Mount Saint Joseph University	Uncertain	5	While free lunches help many families, it will be difficult to connect the dots between the food and academic performance.
Bill LaFayette	Regionomics	Strongly Agree	9	Many children, especially in urban districts, live in economically challenged families, possibly without access to fresh decent food. Hungry children cannot learn. This would also relieve the household of an additional expense
Trevon Logan	Ohio State University	Agree	8
Curtis Reynolds	Kent State University	Agree	7	I am more confident about the effect on test scores than graduation. But graduation is a more important metric and I do think that this could help. While some kids may not need this, a lot of kids rely on school lunches as for their food or would benefit from having free lunch.
Ejindu Ume	Miami University	Strongly Agree	9
Kathryn Wilson	Kent State University	Agree	7

Question B: Universal free school lunches will promote equitable outcomes in Ohio’s K-12 education system.

Economist	Institution	Opinion	Confidence	Comment
Jonathan Andreas	Bluffton University	Agree	8	Universal benefits are more equitable than means-tested benefits because they literally treat everyone the same. They increase equitability of social status by eliminating the stigma of singling out the needy for special help. They also increase equality of opportunity by eliminating a high shadow-tax-rate whereby higher earned income can be completely "taxed" away by radically reduced benefits thereby eliminating the marginal incentive to increase earnings. The tradeoff is that they are a lot more expensive to fund than means-tested benefits, so they are a relatively inefficient way to increase equity.
David Brasington	University of Cincinnati	Uncertain	8	Children who otherwise wouldn't get the food should test better and thus provide more equitable outcomes, but you have to weigh the cost with the small number of students who would benefit. My children also don't like the food school offers, so take-up might be low, too low to make the cost worthwhile.
Ron Cheung	Oberlin College	Strongly Agree	10
Kevin Egan	University of Toledo	Strongly Agree	10	Yes, it is fair to provide free breakfast and lunches for all students which reduces the burden for all parents.
Vinnie Gajjala	Tiffin Univeristy	Strongly Agree	10
Will Georgic	Ohio Wesleyan University	Strongly Agree	10	Even though some literature suggests that students in poverty may benefit less from these programs than students not in poverty (Schwartz and Rothbart 2020), other studies find the opposite relationship between educational gains and socioeconomic background. Ultimately, I would still consider it to be an "equitable outcome" if impoverished students benefit from these programs, even if those benefits aren't as great as those of their more economically advantaged peers.
Bob Gitter	Ohio Wesleyan University	Strongly Agree	9	Feeding school children is a wonderful use of our tax dollars.
Christian Imboden	Bowling Green State University	Agree	8
Michael Jones	University of Cincinnati	Disagree	7	Encouraging children to eat breakfast at school rather than at home shifts parental responsibilities to government programs. This sends the message that providing basic needs such as food is something families can opt out of rather than prioritize. Parents who value family time together should not be put at a financial disadvantage simply because they do not use a free school breakfast. Families are strengthened when children see their parents taking care of them.
Charles Kroncke	Mount Saint Joseph University	Uncertain	5
Bill LaFayette	Regionomics	Strongly Agree	9	Providing lunch across the board would avoid a stigma that could prevent income-eligible children from accessing the benefit. It would also help instill better eating habits because all children would get the school lunch rather than bringing food from home.
Trevon Logan	Ohio State University	Agree	8
Curtis Reynolds	Kent State University	Agree	8
Ejindu Ume	Miami University	Strongly Agree	9
Kathryn Wilson	Kent State University	Agree	7