March 6, 2011
The Honorable Robert McDonnell
Office of the Governor
Patrick Henry Building, 3rd Floor
1111 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Dear Governor McDonnell:
We write to urge you to veto SB 966, a bill, which would
mandate 150 minutes per week for physical education to all students in grades
K-8 during the regular school year by 2014. This legislation would represent the first time that the
Standards of Quality would mandate a specific amount of time for any individual
subject.
We appreciate the concerns about childhood obesity that were
focused on in the debate on this bill.
However, there are significant fiscal and instructional impacts from
this bill that were not thoroughly vetted or considered during our General
Assembly session. In addition, our
school system in Fairfax County, quite frankly, dropped the ball in
communicating their concerns and many of my colleagues were left unaware of the
financial and instructional impacts of this bill. We did vote against the bill. However, a number of our Fairfax colleagues who voted for
the bill told us that it was only after final passage that they ever heard
anything from the school system and they might have voted differently had they
known of these concerns. We know
that our Superintendent and School Board Chair have now communicated to you and
to our colleagues in detail about their concerns and we endorse their
efforts. However, this information
was unknown by many of my colleagues when we voted on this measure.
This bill is first, an unfunded mandate that will cost
Fairfax County schools, as well as others, millions of dollars. In Fairfax it is estimated that the
additional costs for staffing alone will be between $18-24 million. Second, this bill will crowd out other
mandates and accountability requirements in academics. In science and math, we need to be
increasing our time on task, not decreasing it. This bill would have the opposite impact and set us back
academically. Given that there is
no other subject where 150 minutes a week is mandated, it is illogical that
physical education would get this kind of unique status over math, science,
reading, or the humanities. Already
we require physical education for the many of our students who participate in
two or three sports outside school and would prefer more academic time
instead. And this bill does
not allow recess to count as physical education time, so it is only academic
time that can be depleted by this bill. If this bill goes into effect, after the 150 minutes of
physical education is incorporated, there would be only 22 minutes of time left
for all other activities such as art, music and the humanities.
Unlike many academic subjects that need class time, there
are many other arenas where we can target help for overweight children without
adding to deficits in their academics and providing a well-rounded education. After-school
programs, targeted programs for particular populations at risk, or parent
education programs through community, civil or church groups have all been
addressing the threats of childhood obesity. We know the First Lady of Virginia has also joined with
First Lady Michelle Obama in giving this issue public attention and we applaud
their efforts. These private
sector and public service education efforts can work on this issue instead of
adding another “one size fits all” mandate to our schools.
Finally, since it is often low-income children who are most
academically at risk, to take academic time away from them would do the most
harm. While they can find other
avenues for physical activity, they have fewer choices for academic challenges
outside of the classroom.
For these reasons, and for the details outlined in the
earlier letter you have received from Fairfax County school officials, we
strongly urge you to VETO SB966.
Sincerely,
Barbara Comstock Dave
Albo
House of Delegates, 34th District House
of Delegates, 42nd District
Tom Rust Tim
Hugo
House of Delegates, 86th District House
of Delegates, 40th District