Advocacy and Legislation >>
February 14, 2012. The Vermont Senate approved S.245, which would provide every Vermont high school student with the opportunity to learn CPR. The Senate must give a second approval to the measure before it moves on to the House Education Committee.
Click the following link to our You’re the Cure website and you can send a pre-written email to your senators about this and edit it to include your own personal story. http://www.yourethecure.org/composeletters_open.aspx?AlertID=24469
PEP has been funded at $78.8 million for FY 2012. This is equal to the funding provided in FY 2011. The House and the Senate came to an agreement on the omnibus appropriations bill for FY 2012 late on December 15. The House passed the measure on December 16 and the Senate on December 17. Many other education programs were zeroed out for FY 2012 so it is very fortunate that PEP made the cut. The US Department of Education will release more information about submitting grant applications for FY 2012 grants as it is available.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed its Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization bill on October 20, on a bipartisan vote of 15-7. The bipartisan Senator Harkin/Senator Enzi bill:
- Eliminates many existing grant programs, including PEP, but establishes the Successful, Safe and Healthy Students grant program, under which states may fund physical activity/fitness/nutrition programs if LEAs apply for funds in those areas. Conditions for learning indicators include physical education standards requirements and reporting of quality physical education minutes. (Overall, the bill consolidates 82 programs into about 40 broader baskets of funding.)
- Establishes a new grant program for “well-rounded” education, under which districts and schools can apply for funding for 11 different subject areas, including physical education and health education. However, all subjects are funded under the same pot of money. Applications will be evaluated at the federal level and will be assessed on how well they demonstrate meeting the district/school’s need.
- Neither physical education nor health education are included in the definition of core academic subjects.
- No requirement for teacher evaluation systems -- only districts that get Teacher Incentive Fund grants will have to create teacher evaluation programs. The scaling back of teacher evaluation systems is expected to be vigorously debated on the Senate floor – Senator Brown (R-MA), Senator Landrieu (D-LA), and Senator Lieberman (I-CT) sent a letter to the HELP Committee asking that teacher evaluation systems be reinstated.
- Requires states to demonstrate they have college-and-career ready standards in math, reading, and science, but would not require them to join the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
- Keeps annual testing in grades 3-8 and once in high school, but scraps AYP requirements.
The House Education and the Workforce Committee has yet to reveal its teacher effectiveness and accountability bills. Senator Harkin is said to be reticent to move to floor debate on his bill until the House has made more progress. The Obama Administration opposes the Senate bill’s handling (or lack thereof) of teacher evaluation and accountability. Thus, while there has been much progress, it’s likely to be slowed/stopped until after the New Year. Contact your federal legislators to support health and phsyical education.
Contacts to your federal legislatorsthrough the AAHPERD Legislative Action Center remain critically important. When you write your legislators, be sure to include information about the benefits to students in your state, Congressional district or community!
Take Action: Link to the AHA letter here
Have you seen the latest results from the YRBS?
Read the correlation between risk behavior and youth assets with academic achievement.
On November 17, 2010, Attorney General William H. Sorrell announced the release of the Reports and Recommendations of the Vermont Healthy Weight Initiative (initially announced, 9 months earlier, as the Obesity Initiative). The Attorney General, in his Report and Recommendations, identified a short list of recommended legislative changes, as well as additional priority actions to which he is committing the resources of the Attorney General’s Office to address overweight and obesity.
The Reports and Recommendations >>
To further its mission of supporting healthy, creative, and active lifestyles for all Americans, AAHPERD and its associations are working to educate the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch on the following legislative priorities: Continued funding for the CDC's DASH program; PE and HE as core subjects under ESEA; PEP grant funding. Take action today by a click of this button : AAHPERD Advocacy Links
