In an open letter to Nevada parents, Gov. Joe Lombardo praised the state’s programs that provide free meals to more than 80 percent of K-12 students and condemned “partisan attacks” over his veto of a bill to fund free meals for all students this school year, two weeks after state Democrats announced plans to revive that legislation.

In the letter sent Wednesday, Lombardo reiterated that more than four-fifths of K-12 students automatically qualify for free school meals because of their school’s Community Eligibility Provision, which allows certain high-poverty schools and districts to serve free breakfast and lunch. That applies to all students in nine counties, including Clark but excluding Washoe, while noting that students enrolled in other federal assistance programs like SNAP and Medicaid already qualify for free meals.

The Republican governor also said “there has been an increase in misinformation about the availability of free school meals” — a result of continued Democratic opposition to his veto of a bill that would have funded a one-year extension of a pandemic-era program that provided free school meals to all.

“I think most Nevadans agree that politics has no place in our school cafeterias. Families deserve to have confidence in our school meal programs and students deserve easy access to nutritious meals at school,” Lombardo wrote. “(M)y board firmly believes that every student in need can receive free school meals.”

The letter is the latest salvo between Lombardo’s administration and legislative Democrats on an issue that is guaranteed to come up again in next year’s legislative session. The topic is gaining national resonance, especially as Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz touts his work as Minnesota governor to provide free school meals for all.

In a statement Wednesday, Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) described the letter as “a lot of words to justify an unwarranted veto.”

“Feeding all children should not be a partisan issue, but the MAGA (R)Republicans have made it one,” Yeager said in the statement.

Assembly Majority Leader Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas), the sponsor of the 2023 bill, and Assemblywoman Shea Backus (D-Las Vegas) introduced a bill earlier this month to bring the legislation back next year. Democrats also held a news conference this month with signs accusing the governor of stealing “our children’s lunch money.”

Read more: Nevada Democrats plan 2025 battle with Lombardo over free school meals

The veto legislation in question is AB319, which passed largely along party lines in 2023, with all but three Republicans opposing it. The bill would have allocated $43 million to provide universal free school meals to K-12 students for the 2024-2025 school year, continuing the meal program that has been offered since the start of the pandemic through a combination of federal waivers and state federal COVID-relief funds.

In his veto message, Lombardo said the bill would contribute to food waste, claiming that up to 73 percent of school meals are thrown away, though that statistic referred to a subcategory of vegetable waste. He also said it was time for school districts to “return to the normalcy of pre-pandemic operations” — an argument he reiterated in his letter Wednesday.

“Just as I lifted COVID-19 state mandates and directed state employees to return to pre-pandemic office operations, school districts must similarly return to normal school operations,” Lombardo wrote.

A state-by-state analysis by the Food Research & Action Center, an organization that advocates for free school meals, found that Nevada and Connecticut were the only two states to drop their universal free meal programs. after I started it during the pandemic.

During the 2022-23 school year, when the program was in effect, 6.5 million school meals were served free each month to 460,000 students, including 206,000 students who would not otherwise have access to a free meal. This was an increase of about 67 percent from the 2019-20 school year, when only 275,830 students had access to free meals.

Research shows that school meals are associated with higher attendance rates, fewer missed days of school, and better test scores. Critics have generally raised concerns about the cost — in Minnesota, the estimated cost of the free meals program was about $480 million over two years.

For the 2024-2025 school year, a family of four with an income between $40,560 and $57,720 per year is eligible for reduced-price meals, and a family of four with an income of $40,056 or less is eligible for free meals.

Updated at 1:40 p.m. on 8/21/24 with a statement from Chairman Steve Yeager and updated at 9:50 a.m. on 8/22/24 to clarify when Nevada and Connecticut ended their universal free meal programs