To state this was the first income tax is not only absurd but ludicrous, unless the author contends that employers who deduct from their employees pay items required as a term of employment such as meals, uniforms etc. is somehow a form of income tax levied by the government to compensate the employer for such expenses.
Keeping rules in place to ensure that all students have access to those goods, through public school buses to all schools, through free meals at all schools, etc. is key to making choice work.