Ohio school obesity bill a mixed bag Examiner.com

06.06.10

On Thursday, lawmakers approved a watered-down interpretation of a bill proposing to tackle the rising obesity rates among children.  This compromise bill, while lacking the teeth that the older translation had, may help forestall the growing epidemic of overweight and obese children.

The bill provides for onus and BMI screenings for children attending Ohio schools and requires P.E. teachers in the style to be licensed in that field beginning in 2013.  Perhaps most important among the measures passed, this bill places finicky nutritional guidelines for meals provided by the school and for foods in school vending machines.  The availability of foods with dear calorie counts and low nutritional quality is certainly a major component of the bulk epidemic in Columbus, in Ohio , and around the country.

One of the key failures for the bill's supporters came from the elimination of the requirement that schools provide students with at least 30 minutes of rigorous actual activity each day.  This requirement was bitterly opposed by school districts, claiming they could not provide such an unfunded mandate.  An initial compromise, allowing schools to requisition a waiver releasing them from this requirement failed to win enough support.  In the end, the bill was passed with a wilful pilot program allowing school's to opt-in to providing this exercise.  The need for this public compromise is understandable, but unfortunate.  While students may be forced to wait until the end of the school day to have a Twinkie, it is distasteful that those students who most need the help will suddenly be opting to get the exercise they neglect to get now.

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