Groups Link Childhood Obesity To Lack Of Physical Education Classes In Schools

A coalition of health and civil rights groups filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights Enforcement, stating that physical education classes should be enforced in California public schools, as it is believed that the lack of it is the culprit why youngsters have obesity problems.

Takepart.com reports that in a pursuit to meet higher standardized test scores for math and English, such schools have given less importance to physical education. This, as per the report, "is a violation of state and federal requirements."

California State Law requires schools to schedule grade school students for 20 minutes of physical activities per school day while middle and high school students are required 40 minutes of physical activity every day.

The coalition has found out that this requirement is not enforced and monitored. Their complaint alleges that only a few schools meet those requirements, and it's also not unusual to have untrained physical educators lead the physical education classes. Because of this, students are less physically fit than they should be and are also performing poorer academically.

"Time and again there are new academic requirements placed on schools, and physical education gets placed at the back of the pack," says Dr. Harold Goldstein of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy via Takepart.com. "Kids pay for that with their health," he adds.

According to the complaint, the situation is even worse in poor or minority districts, where "disparities exist in access to resources for physical education and physical fitness in public school districts throughout California based on race, color or national origin." Hispanics and Blacks were found to have the poorest performance.

The complaint says that according to peer-reviewed studies, elementary school students in districts that did not comply with the requirements were more likely to be Hispanic or Black, and less likely to be non-Hispanic white or Asian. Schools in districts that complied included fewer low-income students.

They also found out that students in districts that complied with the requirements were more likely to meet, or even exceed, physical fitness standards in comparison to students in noncompliant districts.

"We recommend that elementary school students have 150 minutes per week and that the middle and high school-level students get 225 minutes per week," Paula Kun, senior director of marketing and communications for SHAPE America, an organization of health and fitness educators, says. "A great majority of schools across the country aren't meeting that expectation. I don't know if it's a question of money or priorities."

Clarifying their goals of not having to defund or cancel financial assistance to noncompliant districts, the coalition wrote on the complaint, "We seek to work together for the good of the public school children of California."