Obviously, this is a sideways means to cut costs in school. I’ve got a great plan. Don’t serve food anymore in school, sack the cooks. Let the parents be responsible for sending kids to school with lunch, and it can be whatever they want.
Silly, I know.
The reason this will never happen is that school funding is at least partially tied to the number of students eating school lunch.
This is an eternal rule: You will always get more of what you reward. If schools are rewarded for kids eating school lunch, you can bet they'll hold on to it.
I watched the same thing happen with busing. When part of school funding got tied to the number of students riding the bus, suddenly they were busing students who live much closer to the school.
Makes you wonder what would happen if school funding was based on median ACT/SAT scores of graduating students!