Representative Kadyn Wittman (D-15/Sioux Falls) again tries to get South Dakota to broaden its professed love for children beyond embryos and help feed hungry kids.
Rep. Wittman proposes House Bill 1082, which would require that schools serve meals for free to students who qualify for reduced-price meals. HB 1082 would have the state pick up the tab (full price minus what the feds pay to reduce the price) via the Department of Education’s budget.
Rep. Wittman says that covering the full cost of school meals for all South Dakota kids currently qualifying for the reduced price would cost $650,000, about 9¢ for every $1,000 the state spends, or 1% of the budget surplus South Dakota ran in FY2025.
In 2023, her first year in the Legislature, Rep. Wittman tried to get the state to pay for school meals for all kids. In 2024 and 2025, Rep. Wittman scaled back her nutritional ambitions and advocated for adding the reduced-price kids to the free-lunch list. Republicans killed all three of those healthy and pedagogically helpful bills in their first committee hearings.
Republicans believe if you keep them thin, their bound to win.