Dem Partners With Olympic Gold Medalist To Fight Childhood Obesity

Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) and Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson announced the “Shawn Johnson Fitness for Life Act” on Wednesday to combat childhood obesity.

“Shawn Johnson has inspired countless young Iowans with her Olympic success,” Braley told reporters. “She’s inspired me with her work as an advocate for improved physical fitness. That’s why naming this bill the Shawn Johnson Fitness for Life Act is such a fitting tribute.”

The Center for Disease reports that one in every four Iowa children is obese or overweight. Such unhealthy lifestyles lead to heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, which becomes a tremendous burden on the healthcare system.

The bill would provide grants to 10 new physical education master programs selected by the Department of Education that would emphasize the use of technology and innovation in their teaching and encourage students to be physically active outside of the classroom. More and more technological equipment is becoming available to help monitor one’s exercise to determine the best physical fitness routine for each individual. By utilizing such equipment in schools, educators can better tailor activities to individual students’ physical levels.

“Expanding technology use in PE class will make fitness more engaging for kids and more effective, teaching students how to stay active and combat childhood obesity,” Braley remarked.

“To me, this is about finding new opportunities to get young people excited about fitness and exercise,” Johnson told reporters. “Kids of all ages use technology in their lives every day, from video games to iPods to cellphones. Using technology in PE class is the obvious next step, an opportunity to make exercise more fun for young people.”

Johnson, who won one gold and three silver medals in gymnastics at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, has advocated for exercise and physical fitness for a long time. Johnson met Braley in March when she was on Capitol Hill lobbying for the Paralympics and discovered a mutual interest in exposing students to the fun aspect of physical education.

“I am so passionate about trying to get kids active, trying to get them healthy and really enjoying physical activity,” Johnson told reporters. “You see in schools nowadays [that] PE is the worst thing to a kid. They hate PE, they don’t want to go to class, they don’t want to be a part of it. This is a wrongdoing on the teacher’s part for making it that way.”

“[The Shawn Johnson Fitness for Life Act] is the perfect next step to make fitness and exercise a part of kids’ lifestyles,” Johnson continued. “You see how much they [kids] enjoy being a part of the technology side of things and if you can incorporate that into exercise and physical activity, hopefully that can spark their interest enough to take the next step to leading a healthier lifestyle.”

Click here to read more about the bill.

Ed. Sec. Duncan: Unprecedented Money Will Lead to Unprecedented Reforms

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

The $100 billion given to the Department of Education by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is the most expensive piece of legislation since the G.I. Bill which provided college education for returning World War II veterans. The investment is intended to shore up state education efforts, while saving jobs and encouraging educational innovation with its main objective to provide a better future for the youth of this country and the future generations said Education Secretary Arne Duncan at a press conference this morning.

“It is a time of economic crisis, it is a time of educational crisis and I am convinced we need to educate our way to a better economy. The challenges are real, the challenges are profound,the stakes have never been higher but the opportunity is absolutely once in a lifetime,” said Duncan.

“With unprecedented resources we want to push unprecedented reform,” said Duncan, adding that “we have to get dramatically better if we were to retain our spot around the world as the education leader... By the year 2020, we want to have the highest percent of college graduates in the world.”

To reach this ambitious goal, investments will be made in nearly every level of education. $5 billion will be invested to early childhood education. $30 billion will be invested in higher education. “There are no good dropouts, no good jobs today for high school dropouts... condemning them to poverty and social failure,” Duncan said. $2.5 billion will be dedicated over five years to retain students in higher education, and “the goal is not to go to college, the goal is to graduate,” he said.

These students are "competing with students in India and China for jobs... We have to raise the bar,” said Duncan.

For Duncan,”we cannot go backwards”, the crisis should lead people “to think very differently, to invest differently... and show what the country is possible.”