It's a crazy notion, granted, but U.S. House Republicans want all children who qualify for free school lunches - and more - to get them.
To hear critics of a bill that would do just that, you'd think the House members had put forth a bill that would starve children.
What the Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016 would do, though, is increase the threshold for entire schools to receive free lunches from 40 to 60 percent of eligible students. In other words, no child who qualifies in any school would miss lunch, but the school would have to have 60 percent of its students qualify for free lunches in order for every student to receive a free lunch. Currently, only 40 percent of students have to qualify for every student to receive a free lunch.
Indeed, if Hamilton County students attend any one of 48 schools in the district, their lunch is free if they choose to take part in the National School Lunch Program, according to the district website. Their family may be millionaires, but if they go to one of the 48 schools, their lunch is free. In only 27 schools in the district do only students that qualify receive the free lunches.
The present national threshold for one specific student to receive a reduced-cost lunch is 185 percent of the poverty level or to receive a free lunch is 130 percent of the poverty level. So, for the 2016-2017 school year, a family of four could have a household income of $44,955 to qualify for a reduced-price lunch or $31,590 for a free lunch.
An official with the Hamilton County Schools in a Chattanooga Times Free Press report late last week cited administrative costs as one of the reasons it's just easier to give all students free lunches. But the cost of feeding lunch to thousands and thousands of students who don't qualify can't possibly compare to the relatively small cost of paperwork to determine a family's yearly eligibility for the program.
"It takes away the stigma a child or family might have about a free meal," the official said.
If that's the case, why not offer every child in every school a free meal?
Why? Because taxpayers are footing the bill for all of it, including those who can well afford it, and that is what is on the mind of House Republicans.
"This is hardly unreasonable and it's hardly unfair," U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita of Indiana said of the proposal during a committee hearing last month.
He's right, of course.
Nobody wants to keep hungry kids from eating, and this legislation does anything but that, but taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for free meals for every student in a school if 60 percent of the families who send their children there don't qualify for a free lunch.