The good news: The number of children getting a nutritious breakfast in Wisconsin schools jumped 11% last year over the year before - the fifth-highest increase in the nation.
The bad news: Wisconsin still ranks dead last among the states in the share of students who participate in the federal breakfast program, in which students get meals free or at reduced costs.
Breakfast is too key to learning for Madison to stay aloof from this problem. State government should develop strategies to drastically widen participation. On the table ought to be the idea of mandating that schools with certain levels of poor children host the program and develop a plan to draw diners.
For every 50 children in the federal school lunch program in Wisconsin, 13 are in the breakfast program - the smallest share in America. The leader, Oregon, features 28 children in the breakfast program for every 50 in the lunch program.
By not taking better advantage of the breakfast program's potential, Wisconsin is losing federal money. The Food Research and Action Center, the D.C.-based non-profit organization that conducts the annual study, says Wisconsin would gain $12.9 million were it to use the breakfast program to the extent leading states have. The federal government picks up most of the $1.50 tab per breakfast. The state contributes 10 cents a plate, and paying students make up the difference.
But the loss of federal funds is secondary. Breakfast aids learning, ample research shows; yet many kids, particularly needy ones, don't eat breakfast.
Breakfast also leads to better behavior and better health among children, according to studies cited by the Food Research and Action Center. And kids who eat breakfast are less overweight than kids who don't. The latter tend to eat fattening snacks beyond the breakfast hour to fight hunger.
Of course, the bottom line is that children eat a nutritious breakfast, whatever the setting. Thus, if a family can supply that breakfast at home, more power to it. But because Wisconsin families are not likely outdoing, say, Oregon families in that regard, the data likely mean that more kids are simply starting their day without breakfast in Wisconsin than in Oregon.
New Jersey ordered all public schools in which at least a fifth of the students are eligible for free or reduced meals to establish a school breakfast program. Student participation in the program rose by 39%. Wisconsin should explore such a mandate.
One impediment to eating in the hurly-burly present is lack of time. The report suggests serving breakfast in home rooms or from carts in hallways - ideas worth considering.
Wisconsin must better learn a lesson of research: The way to children's minds is often through their stomachs.