Author: Webmaster

SEN. MAHER VOTES FOR FREE SCHOOL LUNCHES, EXTENDNG STATE BUDGET SAFEGUARDS

HARTFORD – State Senator Ceci Maher (D-Wilton)voted with her colleagues today to fund free student breakfasts and lunches through the end of the current school year for half a million Connecticut students. The senator also voted to continue for another five years Connecticut’s tough budget safeguards that have allowed our state to build up its largest budget reserve ever, while devoting billions of dollars toward old, unfunded pension debt.

“If students are hungry, they cannot learn,” said Sen. Maher, Senate Chair of the Children’s Committee. “We know this, and the many people who spent their time providing testimony in support of this bill, know this as well. For them and the countless Connecticut students that will benefit immensely from the expansion of the school meal program, I am extremely happy we were able to get this done, and done so quickly. The school meal program is crucially important to students and their families, extending this much-needed support as the federal program ends ensures no student in our state has to worry about focusing on their schoolwork while hungry. Food insecurity isn’t just an issue here but also a problem nationwide and I’m proud of my colleagues in the General Assembly for ensuring that no child in Connecticut will go hungry.”

Free Meals

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government extended its free and reduced-price meals policy to all 50 million public school students nationwide – including those in Connecticut. But, like many federal grants tied to the pandemic, that funding was for a limited time only. The federal funding for free school meals for everyone expired on September 30, 2022, although last spring Democrats set aside $30 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act and out it in the state budget to continue providing free school breakfast and lunch to Connecticut students through December 31, 2022.

Now, those funds have run dry. Today’s vote moves $60 million from the Invest CT program and into the Free Meals for Students program to provide free school meals through the end of the current school year, usually around mid-to-late June. Free meals will be provided to more than 500,000 students in all 169 towns.

Budget Safeguards

The senator also voted today to continue the Democrat-led financial restraints that were first put in place in 2017.

Today’s bill will:

• Continue those 2017 fiscal constraints for at least another five years, until July 1, 2028, and potentially for another five years after that until July 1, 2033
• Raise the maximum amount of Connecticut’s Budget Reserve Fund – also known as our “Rainy Day Fund” – from 15% of budgetary expenditures to 18% of expenditures – essentially raising Connecticut’s financial cushion from its current $3.3 billion to about $4 billion. Right now, when our budget reserve fund exceeds 15%, any excess state revenues are used to pay off old pension debt. Under the new plan, once the budget reserve fund exceeds 18%, all excess revenue above that will go toward paying off Connecticut’s 70 years of legacy pension debt
• Provide additional funding to school-based health centers
• Maintain Connecticut’s current “Revenue Cap” at spending just 98.75% of all funds, instead of continuing with a planned phase-out to 98%. That means that the legislature can only continue to spend 98.75% of all the projected revenue coming into state coffers
• Change the Bond Allocation Cap base from $2.1 billion to $2.4 billion, meaning that the maximum amount of state bonding (long-term borrowing) that the State Bond Commission can potentially approve in any given calendar year will increase from the current $2.1 billion (adjusted for inflation) to $2.4 billion (adjusted for inflation in subsequent years). Due to Connecticut’s recent budgetary restraint, our state bond ratings increased in 2021 for the first time since 2001, saving taxpayers millions of dollars in annual higher interest costs
• •Change the Bond Issuance Cap – the amount of state bonds that the state treasurer can sell in any given year – from $1.9 billion to $2.4 billion

Senators Maher and Anwar Support Free School Lunch Legislation As It Receives Public Hearing In Children’s Committee

---

Today, as legislation that would expand school meal programs to ensure no student goes hungry received a public hearing in the Children’s Committee, State Senator Ceci Maher (D-Wilton), Senate Chair of the Children’s Committee, and State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor), Senate Chair of the Public Health Committee and former Chair of the Children’s Committee, gave the bill their support. The bill in question would expand school meal programs for all students, with funding through State Board of Education grants, and is a response to the end of federal programs that provided universal K-12 meals during the COVID-19 pandemic and ended in late 2022.

“”One in six children in the United States struggles with hunger, and one in eight in Connecticut,” said Sen. Maher. “For the last nearly three years, one of the few silver linings of the pandemic was federal policies making sure every student learning wasn’t doing so on an empty stomach. With those programs gone, countless families and students are struggling. But those programs also proved we can do this, and we can do it in a way that protects students and families. I’m grateful for the testimony from so many supporters of this bill and hope to see this bill become law.”

“Studies show that children at risk of hunger are more likely to experience developmental issues. They’re more likely to have lower math scores, more likely to repeat a grade. Hungry children can’t properly learn. Young children who experience food insecurity early in life are more likely to lag behind their peers in school,” said Sen. Anwar. “This isn’t just a crisis of hunger on its own but an alarming threat that could hamper Connecticut children’s long-term development. We need to take strides to support public health, our children and our families, too many of which are struggling today. Free school lunches will provide benefits in the short- and long-terms alike.”

Senate Bill 929, “An Act Expanding School Meal Programs To Provide Free School Meals To All Students,” seeks to provide free school meals to all students, doing so by creating grants for schools and school boards through the State Board of Education. Sens. Maher and Anwar in January stood with school officials from across the state to advocate for free student lunches upon the ending of federal funding support in late 2022.

Written testimony provided to the Children’s Committee prior to Tuesday’s public hearing was universally supportive of Senate Bill 929, with a wide-ranging show of support from parents, teachers, school officials and a number of organizational leaders. Their reasons for support were numerous; Karen Asetta, school business manager for East Hampton Public Schools, said the end of school lunch support may drop student participation in East Hampton school lunch programs by as much as 40%, requiring layoffs among workers who remained in schools during the worst conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic to feed hungry students. Abby Kassman-Harned, director of food and nutrition services for Tolland Public Schools, noted that students in school cafeterias are now foregoing free meals, despite qualifying for them, due to stigma.

Lisa Cacace, food service manager for Cromwell High School, said the end of “free” lunches led to a drop of almost 20% of students receiving lunch and that “as the students come through the line almost all of them ask how much money they do or don’t have. They should not be worried about this. They should be receiving a balanced meal and focus on learning.”

Paul Sworkin, a pediatrician and Executive Vice President for Child Community Health at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, said that nearly 40% of families the hospital system screens experience food insecurity. “As a developmental-behavioral pediatrician I can assure you that kids cannot learn to their fullest potential if they are hungry,” Sworkin said. “By making no-cost school lunch available to all children, we can destigmatize free school lunch and best of all, help ensure that hunger does not harm any child’s readiness to learn during the school day.”

“Nearly 92,000 children, or 12.6%, in Connecticut are food insecure with thousands more in households that are just getting by,” said Jason Jakubowski, President and CEO of Connecticut Foodshare. “Of those 92,000 children, 25% of them do not qualify for government assistance.” He noted that CT Foodshare saw a “significant increase” in attendance at food pantries when school meal programs started. “We, as a society, have both the resources and the ability to feed our school children – and if the federal government will no longer cover the expense of school meals, then we (as a state) need to,” Jakubowski said.