FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, March 18, 2011

Education and Local Government Organizations Recommend Veto of Physical Education Bill

RICHMOND—Five organizations representing school boards, school administrators, school employees,

as well as county and local governing bodies today asked Governor Robert McDonnell to veto SB 966,
which would require public schools to provide 30 minutes of physical education for all elementary
students. The request for a veto was made by a letter issued by the Virginia Association of Counties, the
Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the Virginia Education Association, the Virginia Municipal
League, and the Virginia School Boards Association.

The letter reads, in part:

We are writing on behalf of the Virginia School Boards Association, the Virginia Association of School
Superintendents, the Virginia Education Association, the Virginia Municipal League, and the Virginia
Association of Counties to request that you veto SB 966, a bill that would mandate that public schools
provide a minimum of 150 minutes of physical education per week in grades kindergarten through eight.
We recognize that the bill’s intent of fighting childhood obesity is a laudable goal. We ask, however,
that you exercise your discretion to veto this bill because of two major concerns: (1) the bill imposes a
substantial unfunded mandate on school divisions and localities and (2) due to time constraints and
other requirements imposed on the public schools, the bill’s implementation will pose very significant
instructional and practical problems.

The projected personnel costs alone are substantial. In order to provide 150 minutes of physical
education per week, many school divisions will have to hire additional physical education teachers, a
cost which will be borne solely by the localities. For example, Fairfax County Public Schools has
estimated that the personnel costs associated with SB 966 will be $18 to $24 million per year;
Chesterfield County estimates that the bill would require an additional 102 elementary teachers and an
additional 35 middle school teachers at a cost of $6.9 million; Pittsylvania County estimates that the bill
will require an additional 10 elementary teachers and 4 middle school teachers at a cost of $800,000;
and Louisa County estimates that the bill will require 16 elementary teachers at a cost of $720,000.

In addition to the personnel costs, this bill will have significant capital costs for many school divisions.
While physical education can certainly be conducted outdoors during certain times of the year, the
legislation has no inclement weather provision and schools simply were not built with this physical
education requirement in mind. Many elementary schools throughout the Commonwealth do not have
gymnasiums or other facilities sufficient to meet the requirements of this bill. Supporters of the bill
have argued that physical education can take place in the classrooms or the hallways. Anyone who has
spent any time in an elementary school – or even around elementary school-aged children – knows this
is not a feasible solution. Classrooms are too small and too crowded for physical activity of the type
contemplated by SB 966.
This bill also poses an untenable time constraint on the school day. The Standards of Accreditation
require an instructional day of 330-minutes, 75% of which (248 minutes) must be spent on core
academic subjects. The Virginia Code also requires that elementary teachers have at least 30 minutes
per day of unencumbered planning time. If 30 minutes per day are added for physical education, then
only 22 minutes per day are left for any other subjects, such as art and music (which elementary schools
are also required to teach), foreign languages and computer instruction (which elementary schools are
encouraged to teach), or for remediation (which many students need in order to pass the SOLs).

Proponents of this legislation have argued that it will not require the hiring of additional personnel
because classroom teachers can provide the physical education instruction. This argument ignores the
planning time requirement. Most teachers have their planning time while their students are receiving
resource instruction, such as art, music, or physical education. If classroom teachers are to provide the
physical education instruction, many school divisions will have to hire additional personnel to relieve the
classroom teachers for their planning time. Extending the school day may relieve these time constraints,
but only at a very significant additional cost which, again, would be borne entirely by the localities.

For these reasons, we respectfully request that you veto SB 966.