Free school breakfasts a program we must keep

It's good to hear that the Highlands County School District will not scale back its free school breakfast program at area schools. Still, recent changes in school rules are troubling, and bodes poorly for this important program. Let's hope the board doesn't ever take those drastic steps.

Changes to the district rules include deleting breakfast programs for the middle and high schools. It also allows deletion of the program in schools where fewer than 80 percent of the children qualify for free or reduced meals. Only two schools would meet that mark.

Few programs our schools provide outside of education offerings help children more than free school breakfast. For some of these children, it's the best, most nutritious food they receive all day. For a few, the food they get at school is about all they get. They cannot control their home environment.

Studies show that children do much better when they aren't suffering from hunger pains and lack of nutrition. It's a small price to pay to make sure our children have a decent meal in their tummies.

At the middle school and high school levels, fewer young people take advantage of the program. But that doesn't change the fact that about 25 percent of our middle school and high school students still use this program. What happens to them if it goes away?

Some programs we do because they deal with basic human needs and decency. Free school breakfasts is one example. We must not as a school district ever decide against fulfilling basic needs for our children. To do so would be inexcusable.