National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity

                                                                                        

                                                          Fall,  2007

On the Hill…

 

 

No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

NCPPA’s has been very involved in working to insure that physical activity is included in the upcoming reauthorization of No Child Left Behind and have focused much of our effort on the House initially.  The House released a draft version and took a historic position by soliciting comments from the public on the draft.  Originally, Congress believed that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) better known as NCLB would be finished this year however, many knowledgeable advocates now predict that will not happen. 

 

The Honorable George Miller (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, did not sound optimistic at all when he stated on November 7th:   “For the last several months, I have been engaged in an effort to improve the No Child Left Behind law. While retaining the core goals and standards of the law, including its strong focus on accountability, I have tried to respond to the serious and legitimate concerns with the law by making it more fair and flexible.  Congressman McKeon and his staff have also put a lot of time and effort into the reauthorization this year. I greatly appreciate Congressman McKeon’s hard work.  It has become clear to me, however, that without real Presidential leadership, this reauthorization process is unlikely to succeed. And with this week’s veto threat of the education appropriations bill, this President has demonstrated a complete failure of leadership.  President Bush’s only real involvement this year in developing a new education bill has been to make an occasional speech urging Congress to stay the course. That has been counterproductive given how clearly unfair and inflexible the law is. Now the President is saying that he wants to stay the course on inadequate education funding as well. It is difficult to see how we get a reauthorization bill done in this Congress as long as the President continues to oppose both common-sense improvements to the law and additional education funding.”

 

NCPPA developed a “menu” of possibilities to insert physical activity into NCLB.  You can access the full proposal on our website at www.ncppa.org.  The Coalition was careful when developing the list to be very realistic (based on conversations with education staffers) as to what we thought would stand a reasonable chance for inclusion.  The bill is incredibly large and complicated and there is a huge number of advocates angling to get their own initiatives included in a wide variety of areas.  Several congressional offices have praised NCPPA for the care we took in looking at realistic opportunities.  Our suggestions revolve around 3 major areas:  The Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act; the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (this is the after school portion of the bill) and Physical Education. 

 

The 21st Century Community Learning Centers

We were very pleased to see some of our language included in the section on the 21 Century Community Learning Centers portion of the initial draft.  The words physical fitness and wellness have been added to the purpose-in the current version of the bill, it is incomprehensible to many, however there was NO mention of any physical activity (although art, music and recreation were included) in after school portion of the bill.  This in itself is certainly a victory but it is just a start...there is still MUCH work left to be done!

Safe and Drug Freee Schools and Communities

Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (CA-D) took immediate action on NCPPA's suggestions to incorporate Safe Routes To School (SRTS) programs in the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act (SADFSAC).  NCPPA advocates that the already existing grant program in SADFSAC be expanded to include non-infrastructure SRTS programs should the local entity decide it is a priority.  One of the barriers that people have consistently listed to participating in physical activity is having a safe place to do so.  Ms. Sanchez incorporated language regarding SRTS in her HR3438 bill (that she hopes to have included in NCLB)  that focuses on bullying and gang prevention as a part of Safe and Drug Free schools as well. 

Physical Education

The last major area of emphasis in NCPPA's menu of options lies with physical education and specifically enhancing the Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP)-the ONLY federal money that goes to physical education.  The PEP program is included in the current version of NCLB but there are no figures associated with it.  NCPPA has asked for inclusion of an authorized dollar amount in the reauthorization that would more then double the funds that were appropriated to PEP in the last budget.  We are also advocating that local park and recreation agencies be included as an eligible grant recipient in addition to the community based organizations that are currently eligible.

In addition to supporting and helping to author the Coalition's NCLB efforts, the American Heart Association has also spearheaded an effort to enhance physical education further in NCLB.  Congressmen Zack Wamp (TN-R) and Ron Kind (WI-D), Co-Chairs of the House Fitness Caucus, joined forces with Congressman Jay Inslee (WA-D) to introduce the Fitness Integrated with Teaching Kids Act, or FIT Kids, (H.R. 3257).  One of the key features of the FIT Kids Act is including on report cards in every school, in every state, the amount and quality of physical education time that each student is receiving. The Act also calls for supporting professional development for health and physical education teachers.  In addition, the bill requires schools to have multiple performance measures for PE helping to insure that each school is offering high quality physical education. NCPPA is very supportive of this effort and is also working on behalf of it.

Visit www.ncppa.org to find links to the NCPPA proposals, a copy of HR3438 with the SRTS text highlighted and a sample letter of support, a FIT Kids Summary as well as the latest NCLB materials as they become available.

 

 


 

Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)

There was good news for LWCF stateside in the House Interior Appropriations bill for FY08.  The bill (which did pass the House) includes $50 million for LWCF state assistance.  This is most noteworthy, for a couple of reasons.  First, the House has zeroed out stateside funding for the previous 3 years in their annual appropriations bill. Not only was this the first time in 3 years that the House included funding but the amount is an increase of $20 million compared to what was finally agreed upon for FY 2007.  This good fortune did not unfortunately hold true on the Senate side-the Senate Appropriations bill (out of sub-committee) allotted $20 million less than the House.  The difference will now require reconciliation in a conference committee or other deliberations on the budget between the House and Senate if there is no formal conference.  At this time, there has been no conference report issued yet.

 

 

 

Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP)

There was good news in the House and Senate FY08 budgets for for the many advocates of the only federal funding program dedicated to physical education.  Advocates were very pleasantly surprised when the House included $73 million in PEP funding which would have provided level funding for 08.  For several of the recent years, the House has followed the President’s lead by zeroing out the PEP program although they have stopped short of calling for termination (as the President has).  The Senate, who traditionally is very kind to PEP included $80 million and the conference committee agreed on $78 million.   Unfortuantley, the President vetoed the entire Labor and HHS appropriations bill so we are in some ways back to square one, however advocates remain optimistic that the funding will be included in whatever bill finally passes.…stay tuned!

 

 


 

Healthy Workforce Act of 2007 (S.1753/H.R.3717)

Senator Tom Harkin (IA-D), a long time advocate for health related legislation, recently introduced a bill that would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.  The bill would allow employers a 50% tax credit for the costs of providing employees with a qualified wellness program. It defines "qualified wellness program" as a program that is certified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and one that consists of a health awareness and education component, a behavioral change component, and a supportive environment component. The bill also requires the Secretary of the Treasury to institute an outreach program to inform businesses about the availability of such wellness program tax credit.

 

 

 

Back to School: Improving Standards for Nutrition and Physical Education in Schools Act of 2007 (S.2066)

Senator Barack Obama (IL-D) introduced the Back to School: Improving Standards for Nutrition and Physical Education in Schools Act of 2007 on September 18th, 2007.  The bill requires federally-funded Local Education Agencies (LEA’s) to implement policies requiring student participation in physical education programs that meet standards for physical activity issued by the Secretary, based on recommendations from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.  It further directs the Secretary to award competitive grants to states, high-need LEAs, and Indian tribes to provide teachers with the training and support needed to implement such physical education programs and requires the Carol M. White Physical Education program to meet the Secretary's standards for physical activity. The bill addresses also addresses a variety of nutrition in schools issues.

 



Lifelong Improvements in Food and Exercise (LIFE) Act (H.R.3503)

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, (DC-D) introduced this bill in early September that would amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for a national program to conduct and support activities toward the goal of significantly reducing the number of cases of overweight and obesity among individuals in the United States.  There has been no further action on the bill.

 

 


 

Trails and Health Initiatives

The National Recreation and Park Association is looking for communities that have anecdotal evidence of the health and trail connection as well as those that are planning trails from the health standpoint.  Please forward any such information to rdolesh@nrpa.org.

 

 



 

State Advocacy…

 

Pennsylvania

Tax Reform Code of 1971; Introduced: Authorizes a personal income tax credit for healthy living expenses. Defines healthy living expenses as the purchase of exercise equipment, cost of membership at a gym, cost of a class involving physical activity, including sports, dance or martial arts, and other healthy living expenses as determined by the Department of revenue.

 

California

CA S 601-Teachers: Physical Education Professional; Signed by Governor and Chaptered:  Requires the Department of Education to ensure that data collected through Categorical Program Monitoring indicates the extent to which each school in a school district or county office of education performs specified duties regarding provision of physical education instruction, including providing the required minimum minutes of instruction and conducting physical fitness testing. Requires the department to submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature and post a summary of that data on the Internet.

 

 


 

Resources & Links

 

Federal

  • U.S. House of Representatives: www.house.gov

  • U.S. Senate: www.Senate.gov

  • White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/

  • FirstGov:  Official U.S. Government portal to 30 million pages of government information, services, and online transactions.
    http://www.firstgov.gov/

  • Library of Congress:  Provides comprehensive information about Congress including legislation, committees, and Member information.  Also provides links to other judicial and administrative branches, as well as to state and local governments.
    http://thomas.loc.gov

 

State

  • National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL):  Publishes policy papers in a variety of subject areas under the “Policy Issues” section.  NCSL also maintains a listing of all state legislative sites.  http://www.ncsl.org or http://www.ncsl.org/public/sitesleg.htm

  • National Governor’s Association (NGA):  Publishes policy papers on a variety of state issues and legislative information.  http://www.nga.org

 

Local

 

 

Contact sfranklin@ncppa.org with your public affairs news and comments.