Florida legislature seeks to get rid of P.E.

From the Orlando Sentinel

A state Senator filed a bill today to delete Florida’s middle school physical education requirements, the ones put in place in the 2009-10 school year.

That bill joins a House one filed last week.

The bills — by Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, and Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha — leave intact the 150 minutes a week of P.E. required for elementary-age kids but remove the middle-school provisions.

Both were pushed by former Gov. Charlie Crist, and some lawmakers, as a way to combat childhood obesity and improve student health.

But the middle-school provision — which required a semester of P.E. each school year — came with an opt-out clause. And as colleague Denise-Marie Balona reported last year, lots of middle-school students were using that option to ditch time in the gym.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2011/02/p-e-in-middle-school-lawmakers-want-to-delete-the-gym-class-requirement.html