Three statewide education groups are joining with the Virginia Association of Counties and the Virginia Municipal League to urge Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) to veto a bill that requires elementary and middle schools to offer 150 minutes of physical education a week.
Fairfax County Schools have been voicing concern. The three new educational groups urging the governor to veto include:
… the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the Virginia Education Association and the Virginia School Boards Association have joined with the local government groups to make the same arguments.
Their letter to the governor states the following:
“We recognize that the bill’s intent of fighting childhood obesity is a laudable goal. We ask, however, that you exercise your discretion to veto this bill because of two major concerns: (1) the bill imposes a substantial unfunded mandate on school divisions and localities and (2) due to time constraints and other requirements imposed on the public schools, the bill’s implementation will pose very significant instructional and practical problems,” they write in a letter to McDonnell.
Basically, most buildings don’t have the facilities to comply with what would be the new law. Very few elementary schools have gyms. Scheduling is already difficult at middle schools. Most jurisdictions simply don’t have the money to comply or to retrofit new gym facilities. They certainly don’t have the money to hire new PE teachers.
Parent groups are meanwhile lobbying Gov. McDonnell to sign the bill into law to help curb childhood obesity. No one denies that kids need more exercise. However, Virginia legislators really didn’t look at the reality of how to implement their new law or who was going to pay for it. According the the WaPo, this is the most hotly contested of all of the 1600 bills passed this session. Right now, jurisdictions and school systems are viewing the PE Bill as just another unfunded mandate.
Again, what has to be dropped so that this time will be available?
Why can’t those lobbying “parent groups” pack healthy lunches for their kids and take the videogames out of their hands? Kids hate PE, and a lot of them do as little as possible just to get through it. It’s a great chance for the stars to shine and the not-so-athletic kids to have another reason to feel inferior. How about teaching them Chinese, Japanese, Arabic–something lifelong that will give them endless career opportunities in the future? What parent wouldn’t want that?
@cargo,
\It depends on what level. In elementary school, core acadmic time would be tapped, I would think. I don’t think it is necessarily time as much as it is space at that level.
Middle school, time would be the big deal and I guess it would come from music, art, PE, tech ed, home etc type stuff. Again, space is more the issue. Space and instructors. In 8th grade which has health/PE daily, not sure what would be replaced. Again, space and personnel.
The legislation did not provide time or money for building expansion. Let’s face it, in the dead of winter kids can’t go outside every day–not in Virginia. Florida might be a different matter.
At this point, I don’t think anyone would disapprove of 150 minutes of PE if there were a way to do it without costing a fortune. Again this was a case of the GA not thinking their actions through or getting the advice of educators.
A quick phone call to any superintendant would have stopped with well intentioned but foolish plan in its tracks.