Opinion: HB 2058, to weaken the family by displacing parents as providers of food and nourishment

In response to House Bill 2058, Liv Finne of the Washington Policy Center states her belief that the central mission of the public schools is to educate children, not to feed them.

Liv Finne believes the central mission of the public schools is to educate children, not to feed them

Liv Finne
Washington Policy Center

HB 2058 is a bill currently being considered by the state legislature. HB 2058 would create an expensive new entitlement in K-12 schools in Washington. The bill would require all public schools to provide all students breakfast and lunch without charge, even if their families do not need public assistance.

Parents are a child’s primary and essential caretaker, providing the nourishment and sustenance and love necessary to sustain a child’s life since the day he was born. HB 2058 would insert the state between parents and their child in the provision of daily sustenance. This bill would displace parents as the primary caretakers and providers of food and nourishment to their children.

With this bill the public schools would send the insulting message that the schools do not trust parents to feed their children.

The bill would also send a message to students that they do not have to respect parental authority regarding meals. This bill would tell students that their school is now in charge of feeding them, and that the school will decide what food to offer and when. A corollary is that students would no longer have to respect the wishes of parents when it comes to food, dividing families over food.

Some researchers have found students eating in school cafeterias are more likely to be obese than students eating brown bag lunches brought from home.

This bill would also send the signal that the state does not respect the wide variety of cultures whose expressions are closely tied to food.

This bill would undermine parental rights, a matter of concern to Washington state, as shown by the 454,372 individuals who signed Initiative 2081, the Parental Notification initiative last fall.

This lack of trust in and respect for parents by the schools is fueling the exodus of students from public education. The families of 46,000 students have withdrawn their children from the public schools since 2019, when Governor Inslee extended COVID school shutdowns for months longer than necessary.

The central mission of the public schools is to educate children, not to feed them.

The spring 2023 administration of the state Smarter Balance tests show 61 percent of students failed to meet minimum standards set by the state in math, and 49 percent failed in English. The public schools are currently doing a poor job at educating each child to state standards, and should not be running free restaurants in the schools.

For additional information see our Legislative Memo on this bill.

Liv Finne is the director of the Center for Education at the Washington Policy Center.