While it is true that money devoted to free school lunches could be used to feed the homeless, it may also be true that many students in American schools may in fact be homeless, while others may be "latchkey" kids with little adult supervision or involvement in their lives.
A larger debate may center around the availability of economic resources for not only school lunches, but for schools themselves, along with the various other institutions that American society has decided should be funded by taxpayers. Even beyond that debate are the enormous resources that are devoted to items like military spending, corporate subsidies, medical care and the like, which consume a large percentage of what Americans spend both via taxes for military spending and corporate subsidies, and private resources for the massive costs of medical care (which also involve taxpayer funds for large segments of medical spending).
Many would argue that when it comes to education, sources should be devoted away from military spending and corporate subsidies to better fund education, with more than sufficient money available for free lunch programs that target the needy. It is estimated that upwards of half of all taxes are devoted to the military-industrial complex when one considers direct spending on weapons, bases, pay for soldiers, and indirect spending on the various industries and service sectors that support the military.
Can this nation afford to divert sufficient monetary resources away from one sector of the economy to better fund another sector like education? That is a very question that has confronted taxpayers and citizens for much of our recent history.
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