There's no free lunch in the public schools anymore -- at least for principals who now have to pay when the kids don't. Currently, the federal government picks up the tab for 73 percent of students. The rest are supposed to pay $1.50, but many don't and get fed anyway.

The Department of Education says it's no longer willing to foot the bill -- $7 million last year alone -- and recently emailed 500 principals to say their school budgets will be docked the outstanding lunch fees.

In the email, the DOE said, "The Department has made every effort to make smart choices that minimize the impact of cuts to our classrooms. As part of that effort, we reminded schools of their responsibility to ensure that appropriate fees were collected from all students not certified as eligible for free school lunches. While many schools have successfully carried out this responsibility, some schools -- including yours -- have outstanding lunch fees."

The DOE says it lost $35 million from 2004 to 2009 from uncollected lunch fees. But principals NY1 spoke with say the system puts too much responsibility on the schools. They say they can't afford to have their budgets docked for continuing to feed students when parents don't comply.

"Principals should not be out there out there collecting money from parents, they should be out there running their schools," said City Councilman Mark Weprin. "Part of the problem is that for years, the DOE has denied the old adage that there is no such thing as a free lunch and parents have been out there taking lunches and not paying for them and DOE has absorbed those costs. They shouldn't have been doing that and now they certainly shouldn't be punishing principals and schools."

While many principals have written letters to the DOE objecting to the new policy, the department says it's now each school's responsibility to either collect the money, take it out of their school budget, or stop giving away meals altogether.