Stealing Candy From Babies in California Schools

"They are literally taking food out of the mouths of kids," Richard Zeiger, chief deputy superintendent of public instruction. (From the Los Angeles Times)

Image from Flickr, by wenews

 Eight or more California school districts have misused millions of dollars in federal funding earmarked for schools’ free and reduced lunch programs, including Los Angeles Unified School District, according to a state Senate watchdog group. State officials believe the fraudulent use of the funds may be far more widespread, according to the Los Angeles Times. Other implicated school districts include Oxnard, San Diego, Santa Ana, San Francisco and Compton.

The districts have been ordered to repay more than $170 million by the California Department of Education. LAUSD must also pay back $158 million in unrelated misappropriated funds from the six years prior to 2012. In most cases, the misused funds were diverted from food to pay for personnel, utilities and other expenses, even though federal rules require the money to be used only for food services. According to the Times, many schools tried to cut costs by shortening lunch periods, slashing cafeteria staff and serving more processed foods—all of which hindered access and availability of the program for low income students.

Some of the misappropriations were reported by whistle blowers. The reason officials believe the problem may be more widespread is that there are only 60 state examiners who must monitor nearly 3,000 districts. They still haven’t completed all the inspections required since the 2001 rules went into effect and, when they do, they often just skim over the records.

Let Them Eat Jelly Beans—Summer School Lunches Going Uneaten

With most states slashing K-12 education budgets to close their deficits, many have asked why the feds don’t step in to help. However, the feds have always kicked in a little toward state education programs, and continue to do so—the National School Lunch Program being one of the more well-known examples.

Yet even some of this federal funding is being wasted as a result of state and local program cuts. According to a recent report by the California Food Policy Advocates, there has been a sharp decline in participation of federally funded summer meal programs due to the loss of summer school programs in California. In July, 2011, participation in the program was down 6% from 2010, and 30% lower than in July 2008, according to the Bay Citizen.

Each summer, the achievement gap grows, with affluent children having access to intellectually enriching activities like travel, camp, sports, and specialized classes that lower income children cannot afford. The health gap also grows, as lower income children lose access to school lunches, especially when summer school ends. This problem has gotten substantially worse in recent years, with the cancellation of many public summer school programs. Consequently, only 16% of the children who ate free or reduced lunch during the school year received free summer meals last July.

SoCal School District Ripped Off Its Poor Students

Baldwin Park Unified School District, located in the Los Angeles area, was caught misappropriating funds for their free and reduced cost lunch program to pay for banking fees and cleaning supplies. According to California Watch, they must meet with state administrators this week and repay the $1.5 million in federal lunch money in order to avoid severe penalties and a lawsuit. The state education department is withholding the district's federal food money and is threatening to permanently cut their funding if they do not repay the $1.5 million by Oct. 26.

The district serves 20,379 students in 13 elementary schools, four junior high schools and three high schools, the majority of whom are low income. According to the State Department of Education, of the 11,519 students counted in their 2011 Academic Performance Indicator (API), over 10,000 were socioeconomically disadvantaged.

Baldwin Park’s superintendent has denied any wrongdoing, saying that most districts do what he did and has asserted that the repayments are routine. However, this is the second time in five years the district has been caught misappropriating federal lunch funds. In 2006, the district was ordered to repay $1.6 million in food money that was spent on construction work at several school cafeterias. More recently, the district banked some of the federal funds to help build up a $5 million reserve.

It does not appear that officials were pocketing the money or enriching themselves in these scams. It is possible that the scams were a response to dwindling state and local funding and/or incompetent management. Regardless of the cause, ripping off federal school lunch funds for any reason is a pretty pathetic move considering how poorly funded the program is and how much poor families depend on it despite its limitations.

California Charters Cheating on Calories?

Auditors were unable to determine whether California's charter schools are providing nutritious meals to students. Charter schools are exempt from the federal law mandating that schools provide nutritious meals for low income students. While some charters do indeed provide free or reduced price meals for students, advocates worry that some parents are having to choose between the educational and nutritional needs of their children.

See California charter schools (problem with student meals) on the Charter School Scandals website.