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This North Carolina School District May Become #1 For Free School Lunch

Author Britney Cherry

This North Carolina school district may be the first in the state for “Universal Free Lunch”. Durham Public Schools may become the largest school district in North Carolina to provide free school lunch to its students.

Free School Lunch in NC

“Free School Lunch” for all students, this is the goal of Durham Public Schools. The district is planning to apply for a federal program that will potentially provide free lunch to 32,000 students. “The Universal Meal Program” is a federal bill that seeks to lessen the burden on families who live in food-insecure households. The USDA has estimated that 9 million children deal with food insecurity.

Through a combination of federal waivers and passionate advocates, many schools for the first time may be able to provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner to students who otherwise may not eat at home. This bill also does not require families to “prove” that they are indigent. Also, by providing free lunch to all students, this then destigmatizes separation by “class” and allows students to eat when they are hungry instead of being too embarrassed to ask for free student lunch or not able to eat due to outstanding lunch debt.

Additionally, school districts who have enacted “The Universal Meal Program” have discovered that they have actually saved time and money. If Durham is able to receive this funding, students would no longer be required to fill out free lunch application forms. These forms use valuable admin time to approve financial documents. The school administrators would no longer need to call parents to clear student lunch debt, which has reached into the hundreds of thousands for some districts.

This is such a great opportunity because children should not be worried about whether or not they are able to afford lunch when they are going to school. Below you can watch the full news story on the situation done by CSB 17 in the Raleigh/Durham area.

 

North Carolina Home to the #1 High School in the U.S.

North Carolina has a lot going for it. From the best basketball athlete of all time Michael Jordan to now the best public high school.

The U.S. News & World has released its report of the top public high schools and The Early College at Guilford in Greensboro takes the top spot in the country. The Early College got a perfect score — 100 out of 100. The publication reviewed almost 25,000 public high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia. Of those, 563 North Carolina schools made the list.

The rankings only include public high schools. It looked at a number of metrics including graduation rate, college preparedness, opportunity for Advanced Placement (AP) courses, and state testing courses.

OVERVIEW OF N.C. HIGH SCHOOLS

There are some requirements for students to successfully complete public high school in North Carolina. According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, high school students must:

  • take end-of-course assessments in English, math and science
  • have 22 credits in various subjects. Students do not need to take foreign language courses to graduate
  • take a minimum of two language credits to be admitted into any of the schools within the University of North Carolina system

While the Early College at Guilford took the #1 spot for Best Public High School in the country, there were a number of other public high schools in North Carolina that ranked well in the Tar Heel State. See them below.

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Author Britney Cherry
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