Dr. Peter Hinrichs, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University published the first to evaluation of the long-term health and educational effects of participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/click.asp?p=8550956&m=27908&u=564687) on June 21, 2010.
The analysis of the sixty-four year old program found the program leads to a significant increase in educational opportunity and attainment, but an insignificant increase in health levels from childhood to adulthood.
The study asserts that the low-cost, subsidized lunches offered to children in the program may have encouraged children to attend school more than they would have, based on data on educational attainment from the U.S. Census.
Hinrichs says, "The NSLP today is still broad in its reach, but it has some elements of being targeted toward poorer children. These include higher standards for eligibility and also special funding for poorer schools. Had these elements been in place at the inception of the program, the program may have had more of a detectable effect on health in its early years."
Birmingham schools have been recognized nationally as having the best school wellness policy and Alabama is one of only eight states that exceed the national standard for nutituion in the school lunch program. http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-6180-Birmingham-Science-News-Examiner~y2010m6d21-Birmingham-school-wellness-policy-tops-in-the-nation
Birmingham schools are consistantly reported to trail the national averages for achievment annually but have shown marked documentable improvement in test scores in the last few years.
There appears to be some discconnect between Dr. Hindricks analysis and the reality in Birmingham schools.
One would urge the Birmingham School Board to undertake its own comprehensive analysis of health and achivement to address the obvious disjoint in many reported comparisons.
The national reporting does not reflect the realities that have been achieved in Birmingham schools.
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/PressRelease/%E2%80%9Chttp://pressroomtool.wiley.com/www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123492097/abstract
http://birmingham.schoolinsites.com/
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