This post is a response to reader concern about the “humiliation” suffered by children who received cheese sandwiches in the previous post. Yes, being given a cheese or peanut butter sandwich because your parents have not paid their lunch bill most likely will embarrass the kids with those sandwiches. Kids should not suffer for their parents mistakes.

But school districts should not have to shoulder $50,000 of unpaid lunch bills, either, as the district in question did last year. Suggestions that the district call parents individually sound good on the surface, but who will make those calls? What work will not be done because of the many minutes lost to those phone calls? Do we want our schools to become collection agencies? That $50,000 represents tax dollars collected from Americans who expect their tax dollars to pay for education — not defaulted lunch obligations. Again, every expenditure we make in education comes at the expense of alternative purchases. The money spent on the new copy machine may prevent or postpone the purchase of a computer program designed to teach astronomy, for example. Schools operate on fixed budgets based on tax dollars collected and distributed to their districts. They can make some purchases on credit but, like families on budgets, they can only run so far and so long on credit.

By middle school or high school, students should have a basic grasp of economics. They should have learned that there is no free lunch — not unless you qualify for one after taking a means test, that is. They should realize that failing to pay your bills will catch up to you. As life lessons go, those cheese sandwiches are a gentle way to make a point. No one went hungry unless they chose not to eat.