There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch: School Meals, Pandemic Recovery, and Fiscal Substitution

• In Event: Perspectives on the Effects of Universal School Meal Programs on Students and Their Communities

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a sudden generational difference in educational preparedness. This paper explores whether universal free school meals (UFM) may be an effective policy to recover from pandemic learning losses and bring students back to the classroom. I use the timing of a USDA policy which expanded school eligibility for UFM in a difference-in-differences framework to identify the effects of UFM participation on school-level reading and math proficiency rates and chronic absenteeism in Florida. Due to its unique district-structure, Florida serves as an ideal setting to investigate post-COVID UFM impacts and uncover fiscally-neutral effects relevant for cost-benefit analysis. I find that those schools which maintained UFM after the USDA waivers ended experienced modest positive effects on reading and math proficiency rates, large negative effects on chronic absenteeism in elementary schools, and these effects are more pronounced when the fiscal ramifications of UFM participation are considered. In heterogeneity analysis, I show that test score gains are driven by black and economically disadvantaged students.

Author

• Garrison Pollard, University of Florida
  Presenting Author