Texas public school and charter schools will receive $20 million in grants during the next two years to support in-school physical education, nutrition and fitness programs for students in grades 6, 7 and/or 8. The new Texas Fitness Now grant program is aimed at middle school students attending schools where enrollment is at least 75 percent economically disadvantaged.
Read the full article about funding for physical education in the Lonestar State.

This one will probably only result in my having to do more work at my job!   : )  But it looks like a small step in the right direction.

On Thursday, May 10, 2007, I appeared before the House Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities about the importance of daily, health-and-wellness-based physical education in the nation's fight against childhood obesity. I testified alongside actor and wellness advocate Chevy Chase, Georgia middle school student and activist Chandler Converse (2006 recipient of the PE4life National Youth Service Award), as well as several other influential individuals. Download my full testimony using the link below.

Congratulations to governor Crist for passing a new law to mandate daily PE K-8 in Florida. Hopefully his leadership will lead to this type of legislation in more states. The good news is the new state law passed, but it will be interesting to watch the implementation of this new program. I don't know the answers, but I have a few questions to ask. The article stated 30 minutes would be required K-5, but the word used to describe middle school was schools are encouraged strong to provide 225 minutes per week. One very important question, will qualified PE teachers be teaching the classes? Another very important question, what will the class size be in the PE classes? If they double up the classes and there are 50 students in the class, it will not be PE but glorified baby sitting. I would rather see quality PE 3 times a week than daily PE that is just babysitting. Regardless, this is a first important step to get PE back into American Schools. Congratulations to Governor Crist and the entire state of Florida. We now how positive movement in Florida and California, hopefully it will spread quickly.

Read the article.