State Capitol in Pierre
PIERRE, S.D. (SOUTH DAKOTA SEARCHLIGHT) – South Dakota Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden will decide if the state helps to pay for some school meals after the state Senate voted 20-14 to endorse the idea.
If Rhoden signs House Bill 1082 into law, the state would use roughly $592,000 in state money each year to pay the amount currently charged to families whose students qualify for reduced-price meals under federal income guidelines. The federal government pays the rest of the cost.
South Dakota lawmakers repeatedly declined to back state funding for school meals in previous years. This year’s version passed 20-14 in the Senate on Monday and 46-20 in the House of Representatives late last month.
Neither margin is wide enough for the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto from Rhoden, whose administration opposed the idea during committee hearings.
The bill was nearly defeated last week when the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 5-4 to table it. The Senate voted to add the bill to Monday’s debate calendar, however, supporting its revival by the same margin it ultimately passed.
HB 1082 is the latest iteration of bills from Rep. Kadyn Wittman, D-Sioux Falls, to introduce state funding into the federal school meals program. In 2023, she unsuccessfully advocated for the state to pay for the entire portion of school meal costs that aren’t subsidized by the federal government.
Lake Byron Republican Brandon Wipf is the bill’s prime sponsor in the Senate.
Families in the reduced-price meal program are expected to pay 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch, with the federal government picking up the remainder of the price.
Some families fail to pay for the meals as kids run up debt, often leaving school districts to rely on community donors to cover the budget gap, and Wipf said sometimes kids go without eating in the face of that debt.
Wipf said Monday that he understands the concerns of lawmakers who worry that paying for reduced-price lunches rewards families who are able to pay the lower price but don’t bother to, but that punishing kids and school districts in such situations amounts to a moral failure.
“If we are the kind of people who would inflict suffering on children just to make a point to their parents, we are a wicked people,” Wipf said.
The bill’s opponents argued that children don’t go hungry because their parents don’t pay. When questioned by Piedmont Republican John Carley on whether school districts refuse to serve kids with lunch debt, Wipf said he couldn’t speak for every school, but that he’d never heard of a kid being denied food. He’d heard of kids getting string cheese snack packs in the past, however.
Sen. Taffy Howard, R-Rapid City, said schools that rack up debt from unpaid meal bills should get help from local churches, community groups or citizens, not the state.
“Schools can get donations, they can get contributions, they can cover that in some other way,” Howard said.
Yankton Republican Lauren Nelson said the bill robs communities of “the opportunity to give” to support their schools and children.
But that’s not true, said Sen. Curt Voight, R-Rapid City. School is only in session for 185 days a year, Voight said, and families that struggle to feed their kids don’t stop struggling when the school year ends.
“That leaves another 180 days where those responsibilities are the community’s,” Voight said.
When asked if Rhoden would sign the bill, a spokeswoman said the governor “will review any bill that reaches his desk.”
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