BALANCED BUDGETS OR BALANCED MEALS? School cafeterias are
essentially small businesses. For the most part, they exist
independently from a district's budget and are expected to break
even. Food is the only aspect of your kid's school day that has
this burden; everything else -- from textbooks to sports teams
to computer labs -- is paid for by school-district funds (your
taxes plus money from the federal and state governments). The
average price parents will pay for an elementary school lunch
this academic year is $1.86, according to the School Nutrition
Association, a group based in Alexandria, VA, that represents
55,000 school food program directors nationwide. Yet the cost to
produce that meal is $2.92, a 25-cent increase from last year.
So why not charge parents more to close that gap? School food
directors say privately that the school-board members who
control the prices resist raising them over worry about larger
families: Even $3 a day times three kids adds up. So schools
keep prices low. "This is a pe