Arkansas public school students who are eligible for reduced-price lunches aren’t having to dig into their own pockets to cover the cost of meals this year thanks to a pair of state laws that redirect medical marijuana tax revenue to cover expenses.
Passed by the state Legislature last year without a single vote in opposition, the laws create a fund to address “food insecurity and health needs” and a means for students eligible for reduced-priced meals to get breakfast and lunch for free.
Medical marijuana patients in Arkansas pay a 6.5% sales tax and a 4% privilege tax on purchases at dispensaries. Dispensaries also pay the 4% privilege tax when purchasing products from cultivators. Scott Hardin, spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration, said state agencies such as the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division and the Department of Health take $3-5 million from generated tax revenue each year to administer the medical marijuana program. In the past, remaining revenue (about $26 million each of the last three years) has gone to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences National Cancer Institute Designation Trust Fund.
But new laws sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Dismang (R-Beebe) redirect the money to a reserve fund for food insecurity and health needs. UAMS has separate funding set aside in the state budget to cover its pursuit of a National Cancer Institute designation, Hardin said.
In the 2022-23 school year, students eligible for reduced-price lunches paid 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. In total, those students paid $956,986 for 3,189,954 breakfast meals and $2,097,570 for 5,243,926 lunch meals for a total of $3,054,556, according to the state Department of Education.
This school year, 55,662 students are eligible for reduced-price meals out of 466,055 students in grades K-12, according to Kimberly Mundell, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.
After paying for the students’ meals, that still leaves about $23 million left in the fund this year. The Legislature has not determined how to spend the remaining money, although it must go toward addressing food insecurity and health needs, according to state law.
Dismang said the funds could go toward addressing food insecurity on college campuses or public health needs that are underfunded. Dismang named a pilot program, spearheaded by Rep. Aaron Pilkington (R-Knoxville), that provided funds to food banks on college campuses.
Pilkington, who worked on the program with Rep. Jamie Scott (D-North Little Rock), said there is a lot of food insecurity on college campuses, particularly among first-generation college students. The pilot grant program was so popular, Pilkington said, that the state received more than enough applications on the first day to use up all of the available funds, Pilkington said.
Pilkington said he has been pushing to use some of the leftover medical marijuana tax money to fund the newly opened breast milk bank at UAMS, which allows women to donate breast milk and ensures a ready supply of donor milk for sick and vulnerable babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Dismang said he believes the process for assigning funding to the projects would require support from the Arkansas Legislative Council — which serves as the Legislature when the General Assembly is not in session — and a letter from Gov. Sarah Sanders.
In a separate move addressing food insecurity among youth, Sanders said in early January the state has joined the federal Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program, a move that Dismang said he was glad to see.
The governor’s press release referenced that she signed legislation last year to give free breakfast and lunch to students who previously qualified for reduced-price meals. The press release did not mention the funding came from taxes on medical marijuana.
The two funding measures address lunches for students during and after the school year but have not eliminated school meal debt held by school districts. In November, the Sheridan School District issued a flyer asking for private donations to cover the school’s meal debt.
Andy Mayberry, a former state legislator and the district’s spokesman, said the debt is incurred because the district does not turn away students who do not have money to pay for their meals. During the COVID pandemic, all school meals were free, Mayberry said, and parents did not have to fill out any paperwork for their children to receive the free meals.
Although the paperwork is required again for eligibility, some parents have not completed it. The district continues to incur debt as they feed those students meals even if they have not been determined eligible for the program or paid for their meals.
Mayberry said he believes the same is true of many districts across the state.
Despite the school meal debts, Dismang said he would like to see the medical marijuana tax program be forward-looking rather than being directed to pay off old debts. Dismang added that the Arkansas Legislative Audit is conducting a review of school districts’ meal policies to learn the best practices to improve programs across the state.