Regulating school beverages is best left to the schools themselves, the North Dakota Senate decided in voting down a proposal to ban soft drinks in elementary and middle schools.

"Most of the school districts already have policies in place that deal with nutrition and drinks in the school," said Sen. Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, who is a former school teacher and administrator. Senators voted 33-14 on Thursday to defeat the proposal.

The legislation required school boards to renegotiate their vending machine contracts to incorporate beverage standards suggested by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a group that includes soft-drink companies and health organizations.

Those standards prohibit any soft drinks in elementary and middle school vending machines. Only milk, water and fruit juice are allowed, with sizes of no more than 8 ounces in elementary school and 10 ounces in middle school.

They allow low- or no-calorie soft drinks and sports drinks in high schools, along with milk and juice, with sizes limited to 12 ounces or less. A can of soda has 12 fluid ounces.

Sen. Layton Freborg, R-Underwood, questioned whether soft drinks should be singled out for regulation. The restrictions also may be inconvenient for spectators at football and basketball games and other after-school events, he said.

Schools "serve cheeseburgers and fries for lunch, among a lot of other things. They have all kinds of candy that's available," Freborg said. "Let's leave something to the good common sense of those children, and a little bit of responsibility with the parents."

Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, supported the bill, calling it "a wonderful message for nutrition that we can send to our citizens, and save a lot of health care costs in the future."

Schools have been pressured into negotiating beverage contracts with soft-drink companies to earn revenues that the state should be providing through more aid to education, said Sen. Connie Triplett, D-Grand Forks.

"We in this assembly have not provided adequate funding for education, to the point that our local school boards have felt obliged to enter into contracts with the soda companies in order to get necessary funding," Triplett said. "That is our problem, and our responsibility."

Wardner said prohibiting the sale of certain drinks in high schools could create a brisk student trade in the parking lots outside.

"They'll have it in cases in the back of their vehicles," Wardner said. "For all I know, they'll probably have a black market going on out there in the parking lot. They did for other things, when I was working there."

The bill is HB1451.