ous, fidgety, or irritable by their teachers (Frankenfield, 1). Skipping breakfast obviously has a strong link to academic, as well as emotional problems. The true alarming fact, however, is that up to 37% of kids skip breakfast, causing them to get less that two thirds of the Recommended Daily Allowance for many vitamins and minerals (Frankenfield, 1). With a great number of children skipping breakfast, it has become obvious that a great deal of our nations youth is in need of help. Offering free breakfast at schools would definitely help to solve these problems. Dr. J. Michael Murphy of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School makes this prevalent when reporting the findings in his study:Four months after the schools started a free breakfast program in one Philadelphia and two Baltimore public schools, the number of students eating breakfast had nearly doubled and reports on the students indicated they were significantly more attentive in the classroom, earned higher grades in math, and had significantly fewer behavioral and emotional problems. (Harvard, 2)With many separate studies showing the benefit breakfast has on a childs mental well being, it would be a crime not to institute a free breakfast program to ensure that our children get the needed boost for their academic and social lives.Many have not contested the results of the breakfast studies. However, many people are still wary of instituting a free breakfast program. The main argument that the opposition often raises is that a federal program would be unconstitutional. This argument indeed has much bearing. The constitution states that whatever is not specifically delegated to the federal government is thereby a state responsibility. Education, traditionally, has been a state responsibility. People have gone as far as claiming that such a program by the federal government is an intrusion on state rights and would eventually lead to tyranny. ...
