Study: Overweight students sapping school finances

Expanding waistlines are squeezing the bottom line of the nation's schools, as poor eating and exercise subtly strip money from education, a new study suggests. With 9 million overweight schoolchildren, a number that has tripled since 1980, the new findings aim to give education leaders a traditional motivation for making changes: money. At least nine states that get state money based on student attendance, for example, are losing an estimated tens of millions of dollars because of absenteeism caused in part by the poor nutrition and inactivity of those missing school, the study says. Unhealthy lifestyles by students and faculty lead to other hidden costs, from lower worker productivity to the added expenses of helping students who have fallen behind, says the study.  Through their courses, menus and vending-machine sales of soda and candy, schools have huge influence and responsibility, the report says. Children spend 2,000 hours a year in school. The findings are part of a flurry of efforts aimed at the nation's weight problem.