Physical Education Policy Analysis

Pomeranz, J. L., & Miller, D. P. (2015). Research report: Policies to promote healthy portion

For my priority policy issue I have identified National Alliance for Nutrition & Activity coalition (NANA). Within the legislative and executive branches of government NANA endorses a better understanding about the importance of healthy eating, physical activity and obesity control to the nation's health and health-care costs. The efforts of NANA includes, supporting effective education and promotion programs, advocating adequate funding for programs, and promoting policy and environmental changes that help Americans eat better and be more physically active. After a decade of national, state, and local advocacy to improve the nutritional quality of school food, NANA coalition made a successful effort to pass the heathy, hunger free kids act.

For this reason, I believe there is great need to campaign for new legislation and social programming that addresses the following supportive evidence for obesity resolution. According to Frieden, Dietz, and Collins, implementing legislation that heavily taxes unhealthy food will help reduce consumption of these foods. Decreasing the cost of healthy foods, subsidizing farmer’s markets in underprivileged areas, creating zoning legislation that prohibits the building of fast food restaurants in the vicinity of schools and recreation areas, prohibition of unhealthy food advertisements directed at children, requiring restaurants to offer healthy food options for kids with the nutritional information listed on the menu, increase active transportation and recreation, and improve physical activity programs will also reduce childhood obesity (Frieden, Dietz, & Collins, 2010). The difficulty in implementing these solutions is monetary and political. The businesses negatively affected by these changes will fight against them and the cost of subsidizing groceries for the impoverished areas will cost.

The number of obese children more than tripled since 1971. Physical education should be a mandatory class, because at least one in three children in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Obesity is causing a huge amount of health problems that previously weren't seen until adulthood. If all children had PE class every day, it would help reduce the number of children affected by obesity and children would develop a habit of daily physical exercise.

Obesity in school-age children is a problem in North Carolina. “North Carolina is the 23rd most obese state in the United States for children www.eatsmartmovemorenc.com/Data/Texts/Quick%20Facts.pdf – 31.4% of youth in North Carolina are overweight or obese” https://www.healthiergeneration.org/...childhood_obesity/.../north_caroli... (Child Obesity Rate). There is a mandated physical education requirement for school-age children attending public schools in North Carolina. The North Carolina State Board of Education Policy Manual states “that every kindergarten through eighth grade student should be engaged in at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily” (Recess and Physical Activity). In spite of being clearly stated in policy and described in detail, many of the school-age children in North Carolina are still suffering from poor health. Based on the above information and recent research, the North Carolina State Board of Education needs to revise their policy on physical education. The new policy should state that school-age children in North Carolina “should participate every day in 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity that is enjoyable and developmentally appropriate”. By increasing school-age children’s physical activity to 60 minutes a day, the obesity rate of school-age children in North Carolina will reduce.

Deadly epidemics have taken many forms throughout history, but a new condition has begun threaten children’s lives recently. In America, obesity is becoming an increasingly widespread problem, affecting people of all ages, races, and backgrounds. Due to the prevalence of the problem, many people have begun to form opinions on government intervention to prevent and help obliterate obesity within the country. Children who are obese have a particularly high risk of developing medical conditions because of their weight, making childhood obesity a priority to many advocates for government intervention. Those who oppose government intervention as a solution to childhood obesity feel that it is a personal matter and that the government

Mandatory high school physical education tries to pawn off a healthy lifestyle on teenagers who frankly don’t care. Without mandatory physical education, students will be able to take control of their education and the costs of mandatory gym will be filtered back into the school in more purposeful ways. Prairie Ridge should offer weights, total body fitness, and cardiovascular to students as an elective who wish for that break in between academic classes.

The kids would still exercise, and they would still be active. Iowa is one of the states that makes sure all kids get at least 150 minutes of exercise each week. Kids that aren’t in sports do not always have a choice about doing physical education. It is a rule to do physical education in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, north Carolina, Illinois, and Iowa. Kids do not have to sports if they can exercise in physical education.

Federally-funded school meal programs, including the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP), serve an average of 31.3 million lunches and 11.1 million breakfasts per day at a cost to the country of $11.1 billion in 2011 (Food & Nutrition Services, 2012). These federally-funded meals are an excellent opportunity for regulation of nutrition as well as education regarding healthy choices. Obesity is clearly a great threat to the health of our nation, and the federal government must step in to defend its citizens against this growing threat. Children are at the mercy of their families, their social conditions, and their schools, predisposing them to obesity through poor nutritional options and a lack of education; the federal government must intervene through regulation of school meals and snacks to protect children from the abundance of unhealthy options while also educating them and reducing childhood obesity.

” The authors of the article also state that states have “new funding (approximately $40 million annually) [that] is available to hire elementary school credentialed physical education teachers and potentially affect over 1000 elementary schools (see California Governor's Budget, 2007-08) (“Elementary”).” Of course, that is not sufficient “funding, however, to support PE credentialed teachers' direct services to all children on a regular basis (e.g., 3 or more times per week, 150 minutes per week) (“Elementary”).” Because of that, “empowering classroom teachers to deliver regular physical education remains an important part of the equation in improving current health trends related to low physical activity rates (“Elementary”).” In this research it seems that “this PDP model seems particularly relevant given the need to determine the most practical and effective approaches to improve elementary school physical education in states that rely heavily on classroom teachers to deliver the PE program (“Elementary””).” Parents value our teachers, and the teachers can teach them how to value their kids. The funding that put aside to hire credited PE faculty might be used to fund equipment and classes to teach teachers the fundamental requirements to provide adequate physical education. Teaching the teachers how to maximize and deliver the activities can help provide better physical

To do so, the Federal Government needs to make it mandatory for all high school students to participate in physical education. Physical Education restricts any harmful illnesses from forming since the activity promotes muscle strength and cardiovascular endurance (Grace). Young adults need to be physically active in order to avoid dangerous cardiovascular diseases from forming and the Federal Government can ensure this by enforcing physical education within high schools. In fact since the last decade, physical education has been argued and decreased in importance; as a result of this, more and more young adults are developing heart diseases in an early age. In fact, according to the CDC, physical inactivity increases one’s risk for dying prematurely, dying of heart disease, and developing diabetes, colon cancer, and high blood pressure (Physical). It's only a matter of time before the number of young adults that get a cardiovascular disease rises, and the only thing that can help stop this is the Federal

Physical activity in school used to be a big part of school, but as time marched on physical activity became less and less important to school boards even some schools went as far as removing physical education completely. Today it is required schools have physical education, but as childhood obesity rates have shown that is not enough. Childhood obesity has skyrocketed lately and it has shown to have an effect on children academically as well as their health. With children spending a huge portion of their childhood in school it gives school a great opportunity to help children stay healthy as well as get an education. “A research project called PAAC with 24 elementary schools showed that adding sessions of physical activity to a school curriculum could have long term benefits both academic and health.” “One school took a survey of children playing active video games and traditional recess, it showed that the children who played the active video games showed an improvement in math scores.” “Among 5,316 students in grades K through fifth grade, the frequency and duration of P.E. class were positively associated with standardized test performance among girls but not boys.” “When comparing students in randomly selected classrooms that offered one 10 minute energizer physical activity break daily for twelve weeks with those in classrooms that did not, the energizers group was more active and exhibited a higher frequency of on task behaviors.” “A developmental study examined that when students were assigned to either sit or walk around before a test showed that fourth grade students who were active outperformed the ones who sat.” “There is myriad research that proves students need adequate amounts of physical activity throughout the school day not only to prevent obesity, but has also shown that it help boost their academic performance.” “In some cases more time in physical education leads to improved grades and improvement in standardized test scores.” “Statewide studies

Ever since the requirement was enacted that every big restaurant chain in the nation is required to put calorie information on their menus health has improved immensely as well. After Florida legislation prohibited shoppers from buying non staple, unhealthy foods with federal aid it has furthermore prevented the rise of body mass index, the contribution to obesity in non-elderly women and the elderly and non-elderly men that was presumebly caused by food stamp participation. This prohibited act has encouraged healthful eating within the poor. Also, if the New York City Board of Health had approved of Mayer Michael Bloomberg’s plan to cut all large surgery drinks from New Yorker’s diets it would potentially cut back on deaths caused by obesity and cut back on costs for taxpayers.

There is nothing more important than health, especially in this day and age. It’s concerning that only 29 percent of high school students surveyed by the CDC (2011) had participated in at least 60 minutes of physical activity on all seven days before the survey. The CDC also noted that only 31 percent of these high school students attended physical education class daily. Only 8 percent of elementary schools, 6.4 percent of middle schools, and 5.8 percent of high schools provide daily physical education to all of its students (SHPPS, 2000). The government is missing the fact that physical education can actually improve test scores, not the opposite.

Ever since the requirement was enacted that every big restaurant chain in the nation is required to put calorie information on their menus health has improved immensely as well. After Florida legislation prohibited shoppers from buying non staple, unhealthy foods with federal aid it has further more prevented the rise of body mass index, the contribution to obesity in non-elderly women and the elderly and non-elderly men that was presumebly caused by food stamp participation. This prohibited act has further more encouraged healthful eating within the poor. Also, if the New York City Board of Health had approved of Mayer Michael Bloomberg’s plan to cut all large surgery drinks from New Yorker’s diets it would potentially cut back on deaths caused by obesity and cut back on costs for taxpayers.