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Breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day. Many schools offer free or reduced-price breakfasts to children who qualify based on family income. But a few Tucson area schools, such as Los Ranchitos Elementary in the Sunnyside Unified School District, have expanded the free breakfast to all students.

Of course, the breakfasts that are free to the students aren't actually free — they're paid for with tax dollars. But the benefits reaped in children's health and education is worth the investment.

Los Ranchitos is offering breakfast to all of its students, regardless of whether they qualify under the federal free and reduced-price meal program. Two Marana Unified elementary schools — Desert Winds and Roadrunner — do the same, but serve it in the classroom. Marana's director of food service, James Remete, told Star reporter Jeff Commings that he saw the approach be successful in Phoenix and Texas, and decided Marana could benefit, too.

Ideally, kids would eat a full breakfast at home before arriving at school. But that's not reality for many Tucson children — and insisting that it should be doesn't do anything to help kids who come to school hungry. Making a nutritious breakfast available to all students ensures that they are in the best possible position to learn and be productive in school.

According to a report by the Food Research and Action Center, the federal breakfast program fed 7.7 million low-income children in the 2005-06 school year, yet only two in five kids who need the help are receiving it.

In Arizona, nearly 40 percent of students eligible for free and reduced-price breakfast ate at school last school year, a slight drop from the year before. Local districts are right to try to increase those numbers.

Nearly 65,000 Tucson area students qualify for free or reduced-price breakfast, according to figures from the Arizona Department of Education. Every school district offers discounted breakfast and lunch to its students except Catalina Foothills School District. The need isn't confined to one part of town or specific schools. And the response shouldn't be, either. All children can benefit from a nutritious breakfast.

Critics of these kinds of family assistance programs like to point out that people shouldn't have children they can't afford, that parents, not taxpayers, should provide for their kids. Or they employ the I-had-it-hard-and-didn't-have-any-help approach, with the assumption that one person's experience is universal.

These arguments ignore the obvious — the kids are already here, and some of them are hungry for reasons beyond their control. Many of the families who qualify for free breakfast and lunch are working families but still are considered low-income. It's immoral to punish the child for the circumstances or decisions of the parent.

A 1998 study by Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy found that proper nutrition is necessary for a child's physical growth, but also that inadequate nutrition harms a child's intellectual and cognitive development.

Many critics of free-meal programs also miss the bigger picture. Money invested in meal programs for kids pays off in the long run through improved education and eventual carryover into economic development.

When companies look for places to build or relocate, they want to know about a city or state's education system. Arizona does not fare well in many of those comparisons. The state doesn't adequately fund public education, and it's common knowledge that, statewide, dropout rates are high and standardized-test scores are low to average. There are, of course, standout districts and schools, but corporations also want to know if they will have a well-educated worker base from which to hire. Sadly, often the answer is no.

Arizona is growing, and people are moving here in droves with the education system in place now. But for a state's economy to remain strong, its education system must be solid. And federal programs like free breakfast and lunch, in their own way, help allow Arizona children to perform at their best. Local districts are right to try to expand participation in the free-breakfast program.

"It's not a solution to the problems in America's schools, but it's the fastest, easiest, cheapest way of boosting school performance that we have," said James Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center. "It's the closest thing schools have to a magic bullet."