I am all in favor of children being provided healthy food at school for both breakfast and lunch.  I do not have a problem with seeing my tax dollars go to fund such initiatives.  Many children do not have the money to pay for lunch.  If they charge those who can afford it, and don't charge (or charge reduced price) for those who can't afford it, that labels the poor children as being poor, and creates bookkeeping issues that you avoid when you just go ahead and feed everyone at taxpayer expense.  In many poor districts, such as in Appalachia and the South, they do precisely that.

At my son's former would-be "elite" Newchurch school (which also functioned as a segregation academy for the wealthy of all faiths and none, let's not mince words, everybody damn well knows that's how the place stays afloat!), they just had huge boxes of fast food brought in by various local outlets.  They could hire a music teacher, and they could hire a Spanish teacher, and they could hire a computer teacher, but money to hire a cook, nutritionist, and health teacher?  Once again, faculties win, kids lose.  All about the Benjamins, all about the test scores.

(Back in my day, in the public school at least, they had someone called a "health nurse", which is kind of an oxymoron, but I digress.  At my son's school, that job was done by the secretary with Band-aids, a thermometer, and Tylenol.  Mo' money, mo' problems...)

Finland is supposed to be one of the top schools in world. They don’t start school until 7 years old. 

Finland is supposed to be one of the top schools in world. They don’t start school until 7 years old.

Poland does likewise, either six or seven, not sure.  I know my nieces didn't start in school until that age.  The way they do it, Grade 1 starts a year later than ours (they have a "Grade Zero" which is their equivalent to kindergarten), and for college-bound students, there is a Grade 13.   So you graduate from high school (liceum) at either age 19 or 20.

The American school system is engaged in this frantic fever pitch to try to turn out as many budding neurosurgeons and rocket scientists as possible (liberal arts and social sciences being basically one large exercise in political correctness and, now, critical race theory), pretending that students are qualified for things they're not qualified for (you can't ever even suggest that any visible minority or non-male could ever be deficient in this respect) and have the aptitude for such dreams, whether they do or not --- "No [historically underacheving demographic] Child Left Behind".  For those who aren't cut out for that sort of thing, they are made into nervous wrecks with massive amounts of work they just can't do.  And many of them can't do math in their heads to save their glutei maximi. 

Our homeschool day yesterday consisted of, among other things, solar electricity shop class and a discussion of the errors of Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ.  (We watched For Greater Glory as part of a unit in the history and culture of Mexico, with special emphasis upon their Catholic patrimony.)  I seriously doubt that a harsh word is ever spoken about Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ in any public or Newchurch school across this land.