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Cuts to Medicaid and school meals in proposed U.S. House budget has CMS Board concerned

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Elizabeth Santamour, 2022 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Sandhills Regional Teacher of the Year, wears a shirt that says 'Food is the most important school supply.' Courtesy of School Meals for All NC

Editor’s Note: CMS issued this statement on the U.S. House of Representatives Concurrent Resolution (CR) Budget on Feb. 27, 2025.

Stephanie Sneed, the chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education, sent a letter on Feb. 21 to three members of the U.S. Congress, expressing concerns about possible cuts to Medicaid and school meals currently included in the House Concurrent Resolution Budget moving through the legislative process.

“These cuts will impact students across the state and will most impact those families in your district that can least afford to face these increased costs,” Sneed says in the letter.

The letter was addressed to Reps. Alma Adams (D-12), Tim Moore (R-14), and Mark Harris (R-8), but the entire North Carolina delegation was copied. The letter is included in full below.

Currently, the proposed budget requires a minimum of 10%, or $860 billion, to be cut from the Medicaid program over the next decade, says the letter.

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“The proposed cuts to Medicaid will impact more than 17,000 students in your district who will lose approximately $16 million in funding,” writes Sneed. “These much-needed funds provide critical services for students with disabilities as part of their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and Section 504 plans. These proposed cuts include services for 3,000 students with critical and advanced needs and the 800 educators who support them.”

The proposed budget, says the letter, also includes a significant reduction in school nutrition funding, including a change to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “CEP allows the nation’s highest poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications.”

Sneed writes, “The proposed cuts in funding for school nutrition and changes to the Community Eligibility Provision eligibility formula will harm those families who can least afford it. More than 40,000 CMS students in more than 100 schools face the possibility of being removed from the CEP program altogether.”