Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) recently updated its policy regarding student meal debt. Among other changes, students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals will not be required to repay debt. MCPS’s superintendent can pursue private donations to reduce the amount families owe. And a proposal requiring students in debt to receive an alternate meal — which invites stigma and abuse — was shelved. The new plan is an improvement. But the fact that it is needed at all is an abomination. If all students received school meals at no charge, school meal debt would not exist.