Massachusetts has extra reason to be concerned about potential Medicaid and SNAP cuts

 One can only use the title "So, this is bad" so many times, but this qualifies

As K-12 Dive reports, proposed cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, as passed by the House, have an ancellary impact on school meals: 

For school districts, this means fewer children would be enrolled in SNAP and Medicaid — programs for which student and family participation are used as a metric for automatically opting students into free and reduced-price school meals. 

This process, known as direct certification, helps high-poverty schools become eligible for participation in the Community Eligibility Provision, a federal program allowing access to free school meals for all students at the school or district level. The more students are identified for free or reduced-price meals, the higher federal reimbursement rate CEP schools will receive to cover food costs. 

When students are no longer automatically certified to receive free school meals, Bylander said, there’s an additional burden put on families, because they will need to go through an application process instead. 

That, of course, is bad enough, but Massachusetts also uses direct certification to determine district low income count for the foundation budget. This thus also would hit how chapter 70 is calculated.