Kelly Armstrong speaks during the Aug. 21, 2025, Industrial Commission meeting. (Photo by Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor)
FARGO (KFGO) – North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong says he will not vote for a measure that would provide free school lunches for K-12 students.
The governor says his issue with the measure is that it would mandate constitutional spending.
“I’ve been everywhere on the school lunch thing in my entire political career, and as a parent of kids in schools, it would have been a lot harder vote for me if it was statutory. But it’s an easy vote or me for the constitution, I won’t vote for it it in the constitution, but I understand people’s frustration about it.” Armstrong said.
The measure would change the state constitution to use earnings from North Dakota’s Legacy Fund to pay for breakfast and lunch at school unless the legislature identifies another funding source. A portion of the state’s oil and gas taxes were used to create the Legacy Fund.
Armstrong called the priority of the funding problematic.
“Because of how it’s written and where it goes, it’s the first money that comes out before you spend any other money and so that is really problematic, but if it does pass I mean it is an obligation the legislature has to take off the books right away,” Armstrong said.
The State Department of Public Instruction estimates the program would cost about $133 million in the next state budget cycle. If passed, the program would begin in the 2027-28 school year.
The measure will be voted on in the November election, listed as measure three.
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