Importance of Anonymity For Accounts Used By Students

There are numerous studies linking good nutrition and education (see for example:  http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/pubs/learning.pdf,  http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/health_and_academics/,  and http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v9/n7/abs/nrn2421.html )

Linking nutrition to intellectual growth does little good however if access to a needs based nutrition account creates stigma for the users. Stigma prevents poor students from participating in nutrition programs (see for example: Mirtcheva, D. M. and Powell, L. M. (2009), Participation in the National School Lunch Program: Importance of School-Level and Neighborhood Contextual Factors. Journal of School Health, 79: 485–494. doi: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2009.00438.x; Found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2009.00438.x/abstract ). 

Anonymity prevents stigma, and any payment token masks its funding source, or at least has the capacity to do so. Giving everyone in a community equal access to the necessities required for public education including access to nutritional foods, books, and transportation increases the pool of educated people needed to lead and serve their societies in future generations.  That makes creating a payment token that masks the origin of its funding source and making that token the sole medium of exchange for all purchases made while in the loco parentis of a school system vital for social mobility and a strong middle class.

Each independent school system typically issues a student identification card associating a unique number with a student enrolled in the system. School systems can map that unique number to a payment token in ubiquitous use within the same local area as the school.  Diagram 31 depicts the concept.

Diagram 31; Masked Funding for Student Payment Systems

The flow of funds from the student to the points of purchase must be the same for all students, regardless of the funding source. A school payee can only accept one form of payment which is the token issued by the school system. If (inevitably, when) an ID is lost, or stolen then manual entry of the ID must be available (accompanied by a real-time check for last use).

The standardization of payment for access to all the necessities of education will eliminate stigma of needs based recipients permanently and societies will benefit from the growing confidence of the next generation.

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