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.
