School lunch system open to fraud
In this companion piece, the Daily News found one in five students being served a "free or reduced" price lunch were ineligible, which costs LAUSD $935 million over a two-year period. Here's an excerpt of the report from Naush Boghossian and Lisa Friedman:
While the $8.2 billion national school lunch program is designed to provide meals to needy students, the system is fraught with loopholes that leave it open to rampant fraud.A recent government report said verification remains a problem in the program that provides about 6.6 billion meals to kids each year at a cost of about $10.2 billion.
To participate in the program, parents complete applications listing their income. Random verification checks are performed, but from 2005 to 2006, the study found slightly more than one student in five students who applied and got served was actually ineligible - at a cost of $935 million.
"Several data sources suggest that a significant number of ineligible children are receiving free or reduced-price meals," the auditors wrote.