Feb 07, 2007 - 03:58:23 CST
High school students in North Dakota would have the option to take physical education every year under a new curriculum mandate being considered by the state Legislature.Currently, schools must offer their students just one half-year physical education class at some point between ninth and 12th grades.
The proposed mandate, seen as a way to improve teen health and fitness, would require high schools to offer physical education to students during each of their four years.
It's the latest round in a debate that has seen lawmakers change their minds twice in four years.
During the 2003 session, the Legislature voted to impose the every-year physical education requirement on schools. Then, in 2005, the Legislature voted to go back to the softer standard.
Detractors of that change say more physical education is necessary to combat the growing trend of childhood obesity and teach students proper personal fitness habits to carry with them for the rest of their lives.
"The epidemic of obesity in children and adolescents convinces us that an approach is needed that will reach a majority of our children and adolescents," said June Herman, senior director of Advocacy for the American Heart Association.
Herman said more physical education early in life will build positive fitness habits that can help people avoid health problems later in life.
The number of North Dakota high school students taking physical education at least one day a week has dropped from 64 percent in 1992 to 55 percent in 2005, according to the federal Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
That declining rate helped North Dakota earn a "C" in a recent University of Baltimore study on each state's efforts to combat childhood obesity. Eighteen other states received a "C," while just three - New York, California, and Tennessee-got an "A."
Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota each received a "D."
But while more physical education could help students' fitness, critics of the measure say a state mandate is the wrong way to accomplish this.
Douglas Johnson, executive director of the North Dakota Council on Educational Leaders, called the idea an "unfunded mandate" that would impose financial hardship on school districts.
Johnson said many school districts simply don't have the money to hire more physical education teachers or the gym space to offer more physical education classes. Other educational areas would suffer if the mandate were imposed, he said.
"It is our belief that the decision to offer more physical education is one that needs to be made on the local level," he said.
Bev Nielson, a lobbyist for the North Dakota School Boards Association, said the extra cost to school districts may not do much for fitness because the added classes would still be optional.
"The already fit and athletic kids could take physical education every year, while the unfit will probably only take what they need to graduate," Nielson said.
(Reach reporter Jonathan Rivoli at 223-8482 or jonathan.rivoli@;bismarcktribune.com.)
Lee Fischer wrote on Feb 8, 2007 1:23 PM:
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