Empowering Healthy Kids Blog

One of the constant debates that I have is the role of government in childhood obesity. In my view, I think that solutions to this problem will occur from the “bottom up” - from local communities, entrepreneurs, teachers and most importantly the parents and children themselves. It’s best that government regulations and mandates are kept out of the way from individuals finding their own way.

It is thus unfortunate that legislators in georgia have passed a bill, called the Student Health and Physical Education Act, mandates that school provide annual assessments on children’s physical fitness and wellness:

Local legislators said that there are better things the Georgia General Assembly could be doing rather trying to regulate childhood obesity.

House Bill (H.B. 229) passed the Georgia House and is now headed to the Senate. The bill, called the Student Health and Physical Education Act, mandates that school provide annual assessments on children’s physical fitness and wellness.

It also mandates the results be put in a report to the governor and that there be a recognition program.

A similar bill failed last year in the Georgia General Assembly because officials were allowed to take body mass measurements. That wasn’t a part of this bill, but could be included later.

Sixteenth District Rep. Rick Crawford (D-Cedartown) voted against the bill, saying it was “yet another requirement” the state is putting on local systems.

“It mandates they do certain things,” he said. “I’m fine with them doing those things if the local boards decide they need them.”

State Sen. Bill Heath said he likes to reserve his comment until he sees the bill. However, he is dubious about its intentions.

“Our teachers need to focus on educating our children, not weighing them. My first priority is to see us move up in education from 49th in the nation,” Heath said.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 4:14 pm and is filed under legislation, schools, usa, childhood obesity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.