|
 |
| NCAAHPERD Advocacy |
Welcome to North Carolina Advocacy
2008 North Carolina
Legislative Agenda
The 2008 North Carolina legislative session will convene on May 13, 2008. This year is a short legislative session in North Carolina and we anticipate that we will be working on policy issues in these areas:
Obesity Prevention
Develop standards for student learning in physical education that reflects national standards and ensure that physical education is delivered by certified or licensed physical education teachers.
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
Write Your North Carolina Legislators!
The NC General Assembly Web Site has all the information you need to contact the people who represent you! Go to NCGA - Who Represents Me? for further information. |
|
|
| National Advocacy |
| |
The Carol M. White Physical Education for Progress (PEP) program. The Carol M. White Physical Education for Progress (PEP) program. |
| |
| Senate Appropriations Committee has better news on PEP funding. |
| |
The Senate Appropriations Committee this week approved their version of a fiscal year 2007 spending bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. As a result of the intensive lobbying efforts by NASPE/AAHPERD members and staff and our PEP coalition partners, they included a funding level of $73 million for PEP. This level is equal to current year funding and should be sufficient to allow the Department of Education to award new grants in the upcoming fiscal year.
At this time, the Senate has not scheduled any floor action for their Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. Meanwhile, the House leadership has continued to delay any floor action on its version of the bill (which includes only $26.4 million for PEP) while they try to find ways to avoid inclusion of the minimum wage increase provision that was added to the bill by the Appropriations Committee.
The next challenge will be to ensure that the PEP number in the Senate bill survives a vote by the full chamber, followed by efforts to make sure the Senate prevails in conference as it relates to PEP. It now appears that the most likely scenario is a House-Senate conference sometime after the November elections. The battle is not over, but it is looking better for supporters of the PEP grant program. Retreived from http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/template.cfm?template=pepFunding.htm on 8/1/2006.
Visit the NASPE Web Site for news on applying for a PEP Grant.
Read NASPE's PEP Act Fact Sheet. |
| |
| |
| |
Visit the AAHPERD Advocacy Legislative Action Center! |
| |
 The AAHPERD Legislative Action Center provides you with the information and resources you need to address the health, physical activity, dance, and sport issues being debated on Capitol Hill. In addition, this site serves as an elections, media, and training resource. On the Action Alert Page you can locate your elected officials, the executive office, and/or federal agency staff. In addition to AAHPERD Action Alerts you can review all health, physical activity, dance, and sport issues, key votes, and current legislation. Send health, physical activity, dance, and sport related press releases. Locate national, state, and local print and broadcast media outlets in order to create your own media list.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
A Call To Action |
|
For years, health, physical education, and dance have had to fight for inclusion in the school curriculum. The fight has only escalated since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Elementary and Secondary Education Act (NCLB). NCLB focuses on student achievement in "core academic subjects", such as English, reading or language arts, mathematics, and science. Another of NCLB's major elements is a requirement for “highly qualified” teachers. However, the requirement applies only to teachers of the listed core subject areas. The omission of physical education and health education from the list of core subjects has resulted in less class time, fewer resources, and the elimination of teaching positions for physical education and health.
In that, NCAAHPERD believes that physical education, health education, and dance are critical in providing students with a balanced and comprehensive education, the Alliance supports the passage of Senate Bill 1276 and House of Representatives Bill 4359. Therefore, the Alliance calls upon you to contact Senator Elizabeth Dole and Senator Richard Burr to ask them to vote for Senate Bill 1276. NCAAHPERD also urges you to ask your congressional representative to vote for the House of Representatives Bill 4359.
These bills specify physical education as a core subject, thereby adding physical educators to the list of “highly qualified” teachers. The bills also require states participating in NCLB to adopt content and performance standards in physical education, beginning in the 2006-2007 school year, and physical education assessments beginning in the 2008-2009 school year.
NCAAHPERD believes that these two bills will do much to ensure that quality physical education programs are in all K-12 schools and that these quality programs will provide the foundation for healthy, active lifestyles needed for learning and success in the future.
Since these two bills only focus on physical education, NCAAHPERD members may wish to include in their letters to lawmakers the need to have health education listed as a core subject, and ask that content and performance standards for health education be required as well. (Please note that dance is included as a core subject area under NCLB.)
Donna Woolard
Alliance President
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
