SB49

SB49


 * Sponsors- Matt Gordon(DE), Ally Burns(WY), and Jimmy Fedor(KY)**


 * Issue Catagory:** Health & Safety


 * Bill Title:** Children's Health Is Critical (CHIC)


 * Purpose-** The purpose of this bill is to help decrease obesity at a young age, by increasing physical activity and good eating habits in schools. Obesity is proven to shorten life spans substantially. Obesity now afftects 17% of children and adolescents, making America the most obese country in the world. It is proven that obesity ensures that you will be less successful in your career, and other aspects of life. We can help to start our childrens' lives the right way, teaching them to eat right and exersize regularly. They can become more successful this way.

Obestiy is also a strong cause of cancer and type 2 diabetes. With higher body weight, the body becomes more resistance to insulin, causing diabetes. Obesity also leads to Breast Cancer, Cervical Cancer, Colon Cancer, Kidney Cancer, and Liver Cancer.


 * Eligability-** Our bill is intended to help children in public schools, K-12. Our goal is to help stop obesity at an early age. This bill will have an almost nonexistent effect on the parties involved. This will affect the youth population by making them healthier. It will also affect the public schools and tax payers because of the many changes issued and the cost of all equipment, classes, and food. The effects will be completely positive and without a doubt, beneficial towards having a healthier nation.


 * Terms and Benefits-** Schools must employ a physical education teacher to overview and make sure every student gets at least thirty minutes of exercise every day during the school year. There must be a curriculum for the class. If the school doesn't have a gymnasium, they will be required to build one. There also must be a health class coupled with the Physical Education class so students can learn how to eat right and how much to eat. They will also learn about obesity and how to prevent it in this health course. To conserve funds, the health teacher can also be the Physical Education Teacher. Also, schools must add another qualified teacher to teach a culinary arts class based on cooking healthier foods. Schools are going to need to buy sports, exercise, and cooking equipment for these added classes. Levies may need to be passed to support these additional costs.
 * Fiscal Impact-** A teacher's salary is about $54,000 yearly, so a school district may have to pay up to $200,000 extra to pay for extra teachers. To add extra healthy foods to school lunches it could cost up to $500 per week. With 36 weeks of school it would cost $18,000 per year. It costs about $250 to buy cooking equipment, and about $1,000 to buy sports equipment. Maintanance fees in the gym and culinary classes shouldnt change at all for the janitary staff. For schools that need a gym to do physical activities in, it would cost $50,000 to build one. Also, 8% of schools have a gym. There are about 130,000 schools in America so 104,000 need gyms. Overall, that will cost 520 million dollars. These will be paid for by the school's income from taxes, sports booster clubs, PTO funds, and donations from families.

The initial cost of this bill will be about 530 million dollars, with most of that lying on the building of gyms. The added yearly cost will be about 218,000 dollars per school district each year.

Matt Gordon-http://mockcongress2011.wikispaces.com/MGordon
 * Personal Pages-**

Ally Burns-http://mockcongress2011.wikispaces.com/ABurns

Jimmy Fedor-http://mockcongress2011.wikispaces.com/JFedor