|
Feb.
5, 2004, 10:43AM
School
plan ties incentives to nutrition
Agriculture secretary will ask for funds to fight youth obesity
Associated Press
AUSTIN
-- With the Legislature possibly convening soon to address education funding,
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs is looking to get schools that battle
childhood obesity a slice of the money pie.
Combs
says she is working on a plan that would reward schools up to $30 per pupil if
the school meets certain nutrition and physical education standards. Details are
being worked out, but Combs said she is talking with legislative leaders and the
governor to get input and hopes to have a proposal together by March 1.
Gov.
Rick Perry is expected to call a special legislative session, perhaps in April,
to change the state's share-the-wealth school finance system. Perry has said he
wants to see a legislative consensus emerge over how to replace the existing
funding system before ordering a special session.
Perry,
a Republican like Combs, has been traveling the state talking up his proposed
academic achievement-based financial incentives for schools. Part of his $500
million plan, for instance, would give schools $100 more per student for each
year he or she advances in high school if the student passes the Texas
Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS test.
Combs'
idea is to provide similar money incentives but to connect them with verifiable
nutrition and physical fitness standards. The additional money per student might
go to schools where a cafeteria works on nutrition education or where students
show an average improvement in a physical activity such as running a
quarter-mile, she said.
Tentatively,
Combs is talking about $30 more per high school student, $25 per middle school
student and $20 per elementary school student. The total cost could be $12
million, she said.
"It's
a very preliminary set of numbers," Combs said. "This is meant to be a
very positive incentive for schools."
Texas'
per-pupil school funding rate was $6,913 in 2002, according to the Texas
Education Agency.
For
more than a year now, Combs has been speaking out against childhood obesity and
in favor of good nutrition. Last summer, the Texas Department of Agriculture she
oversees took over administering the federally funded child school nutrition
program from the Texas Education Agency.
Then
she issued a new policy banning the sale or distribution of "foods of
minimal nutritional value" like sodas, candy and gum during the school day
at elementary schools. The ban includes middle school lunches but doesn't apply
to high schools.
|