Money.
That is the lesson to take away from this week's Government Accountability Office review of the food that is being sold in schools across the country.
Strapped for cash and facing ever-larger demands, school boards, principals and school teams and clubs have made various deals with numerous devils to sell their hearts and pancreases, if not exactly their souls, for millions of sucrose-laden dollars.
It is not at all uncommon for a single high school to make more than $125,000 a year in extra revenue by selling junk food.
The federal government regulates the quality of food in the official lunch line, which it can do because it helps to pay for it. But it has no power over the other sources of junk food that surround the students at lunchtime and throughout the day.
Even accepting the argument that such regulation is not a federal role, the state responsibility for education has been taken seriously enough in 28 states that they have limited the availability of junk food in schools.
Utah, sadly, is not among them.
The GAO found that nine out of 10 American schools have vending machines, student-run booths, school stores or even lines in the cafeterias that sell what the report calls "competitive foods." That means items, usually high-sugar or high-fat, that compete with healthier fare for the attention, spare change and stomach space of students.
That situation is not the only reason why American youth are increasingly overweight and, especially to the point when education is the issue, not as alert as they should be in class. But it is a serious factor.
The GAO bean, er, calorie counters usefully go on to stress the fact that all that soda pop, candy and highly sweetened juice-like stuff was not placed there by elves, nor over the objections of school boards, principals and PTAs.
Many schools, including some in Utah, have welcomed the junk food because they get a cut of the sales. The Granite School District has a contract to offer only Pepsi products in its schools, and makes $2.5 million on the deal.
Thrice Utah legislators have been asked to ban or regulate such shameful behavior, and thrice they have refused.
Next year, the state should put its schools on a healthier diet. It will hurt in the pocketbook. But it will help everywhere else.
