P.E. Bills Carry Money With Their Muscle

By Steven Carter, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Feb. 28–SALEM — A yellow blob of simulated fat and a Nike basketball were prominently featured during testimony Tuesday on a bill that would require physical education classes for all Oregon elementary and middle schools.

“They tell me this is a pound of body fat,” Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said, holding up the blob for members of the Senate Education and General Government to see. “I find that frightening, considering how much of this is in me.”

Courtney used the same prop two years ago when he tried and failed to get mandatory P.E. through the Legislature. This time, his package of bills, Senate Bills 367, 370 and 372, have state money attached to them so schools can help defray the cost. SB 370 requires 150 minutes a week of P.E. in elementary school and 225 minutes weekly in middle school. It includes $5.9 million in grants to schools to carry out the mandate.

In the past decade, physical education has been cut or eliminated in many Oregon schools because of limited state school aid, more time spent on basic skills and rising costs in other areas, such as health care insurance.

But Courtney and a host of other speakers told the committee it is penny-wise and pound-foolish not to include P.E. in early grades. Oregon is in an epidemic of childhood obesity, they said. Overweight children become overweight adults with heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, putting added strain and costs on the health care system.

Julia Brim-Edwards, state public affairs director for Nike, brought the basketball. Nike is part of a coalition of more than 40 businesses, nonprofit organizations and health groups that has endorsed the legislation.

Brim-Edwards, former chairwoman of the Portland School Board, said she is not a fan of state mandates for local schools but in this case it’s a good thing.

“Would the state allow schools not to teach math or English or health?” she asked.

The bills would require the Oregon Department of Education to take inventory of how much physical education is being taught in schools and create a state test to assess proficiency in physical education, as they are now tested in reading, math and other academic subjects.

Several witnesses raised concerns that mandatory P.E. would carve time and money out of other school subjects. Jim Tindall of the Oregon Educational Media Association, told the committee that schools have also lost librarians in recent years and wondered whether these bills would damage other important school functions.

David Williams, lobbyist for the Oregon School Boards Association, said there’s been no survey of what schools would cut in order to fit in more P.E. but it’s clear that there would be cuts in some schools.

“If the Legislature doesn’t provide funding over and above basic school support, the notion that districts can absorb this without cutting something else is just a fallacy,” he said.

The committee passed SB 367 and SB 370 unanimously and sent them to Ways and Means. SB 372, the bill creating a state test for P.E., was tabled for more work.

—–

To see more of The Oregonian, or to subscribe the newspaper, go to http://www.oregonian.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.