North Carolina charter school leader: Public schools 'milking' federal school lunch program
RALEIGH -- A charter school advocate who helps North Carolina pick which new charter schools should be approved is charging that traditional public schools are serving subsidized meals to students who don’t need them – such as children of doctors and lawyers.
Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are exempt from some of the rules that traditional public schools must follow, such as those requiring participation in the federal school lunch program. Joe Maimone, a member of the N.C. Charter Schools Advisory Board, argued Monday that the school lunch program results in the number of economically disadvantaged students being under-reported in charter schools and over-reported in traditional public schools.
School districts typically rely on families to self-report their income for their children to qualify for free and reduced meals. Some audits have found evidence of fraud.
“There is no doubt that school systems across this entire country are milking the federal government for free and reduced lunch, serving 100 percent of populations of doctors’ kids and lawyers’ kids that shouldn’t be getting it,” said Maimone, who is also headmaster of Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy, a charter school in Rutherford County.
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