Plan: As part of its Healthy Students Initiative, Happy Meadows Elementary School decided two years ago to raise its school lunch budget by 20 percent in order to serve healthier food to its students. Result: The nutritional quality of Happy Meadows’ school lunches is no better now than it was two years ago. Further information: the annual rate of inflation since the budget change has been below 4 percent, and all of the money budgeted for lunches has been received by the school cafeteria.
In light of the further information, which of the following, if true, would best explain the result that followed from the implementation of the plan?