BISMARCK, N.D. – After more than an hour of discussion on putting free school breakfast and lunches in the state’s Century Code, the North Dakota Senate voted to kill the bill Friday morning.
The bill would have appropriated $65,000,000 for the 2025-27 biennium.
Senators killed the bill 24-22 after the House approved it a day earlier 55-38.
State Representative Mike Nathe, a Republican from Bismarck, tells Flag Family News that the fight for free meals will likely end with a citizen-initiated ballot measure coming later this fall.
“It’s going to be in the constitution,” he said. “It’s going to pass.”
He says he feels it’s going to pass ‘even bigger now’ after Friday’s vote in the North Dakota Senate.
“This issue will be settled when we come back in,” Nathe said. “The only thing that’s going to be up for debate is now much we have to fund this and where we fund it from.”
Democratic Assistant Senate Minority Leader Josh Boschee, of Fargo, said in a statement, “Democratic-NPL legislators have led this fight to find school meals for many sessions. In fact, the first bill I introduced during my first session in 2013 was to fund milk or juice for elementary students during their snack break if their families couldn’t afford it. We’ll continue to fight for North Dakota kids and join the majority of North Dakotans who will pass universal school meals on the ballot in November.”
