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
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U.S. House of Representatives:
www.house.gov
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U.S. Senate:
www.Senate.gov
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White House:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/
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FirstGov: Official U.S. Government portal to 30 million
pages of government information, services, and online
transactions.
http://www.firstgov.gov/
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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
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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
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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.
