Just last August, Governor Maura Healey signed into law the fair share amendment, making Massachusetts the eighth state in the nation to permanently provide free meals to students. This push started just last year with California becoming the first state to implement free school meals to all students. To pay for this program, Massachusetts introduced a 4% tax on all income over one million dollars. 

One goal of this act is to minimize the effect of wealth inequality in Massachusetts schools, and we have already seen this work on the national level. Congress, in an attempt to alleviate the financial pains of the pandemic, passed a federal program providing free school lunches to all children in the United States. 

The effect of this program was incredible, as Anna North of Vox explained, almost instantly an additional 10 million students gained access to free breakfast and lunch each day. North adds that when the program expired at the end of 2021, child poverty increased by 41 percent.  

Besides economic impacts, the CDC found that free school meals were associated with better attendance rates, fewer missed school days, and better test scores. This is especially important in Boston High Schools which are struggling to deal with truancy. 

The Massachusetts Department of Education found that last year 48% of Boston High School students faced chronic absenteeism, which is defined as missing over 10% of school days. Free school lunches will hopefully reduce this tardiness,  as the Boston Public Schools (BPS) found that 78% of Boston public school students qualified for either free or reduced-price meals. 

According to the BPS, the introduction of free school meals will save families an average of $405 to $455 per child each year, helping families stay afloat during a time when the cost of living keeps rising.

Access to free school meals will also improve low-income students’ test scores. Tara Hayes of the CDC found that students who had previously been eligible for free school meals ate more when their district introduced free school meals because the stigma for getting free lunches had been removed.

Additionally, the CDC has found that students who have consistent school meals have test scores around 18% higher than their counterparts. Students who are not able to afford lunch have been shown to score less on the MCAS–last year, the Massachusetts Department of Education found that lower-income students have a 15% lower passing rate than their traditional counterparts.

While most students agree that free school meals are a great thing, some don’t understand how free school meals will benefit Milton. While Milton is a wealthy town having over double the national average household income, not all students can afford lunch. 

According to the Massachusetts Department of Education, 20% of Milton High students qualify as low income, and during a time of rising costs of living many families are struggling to pay for school lunches. So even if the addition of free school meals does not affect the majority of students, it will still work to even the playing field and make sure every Milton High School student has the same opportunities in school regardless of their life at home.