What Should Be Done On The National Level?

Bridging the gap between what should be done and what needs to be done with physical education in schools is important for nation to improve overall health and maintain a high quality of living. The United States’ government needs to ensure that every child in the public school system is being exposed to quality Physical Education programs which will benefit their way of living by gaining knowledge about how to engage in physical activity for the rest of their lives. Currently there are two national objectives for 2010 that the government has made. One being to increase the amount of children who participate daily in school PE to at least 50%, and the other for at least 50% of kid to be physically active for at least half of the time while in PE class.

The government has also made temporary changes to see if the improvement would help. They have attempted to see the results of having children being enrolled in PE classes, attending PE classes daily and being physically active with at least twenty minutes of physical activity. With these changes and goals being made, the government is on the right track to improve the physical education for children. Making these temporary changes permanent would create a strong foundation for the PE programs around the nation and allow the government to make changes to further improve the program.

One of the economic issues related to physical education on a national level is the government spending distribution. Currently, the government spends the majority of its money on the department of defense, health care, and pensions. In the 2007 fiscal year, the government spent only one sixth of the amount it spent for defense alone. The government is decreasing the amount of money given to education each year. They are leaving it up to state and local spending to primarily fund education. Although our country is at war, the government should reanalyze the amount of money given to each department and not leave education out for the state to fund on their own. With the increase in funds given to education, the PE programs could improve by gaining more teachers and higher pay. It could also help improve facilities and programs that would help each student’s overall experience in PE programs which would lead to an improved attitude towards being physically active in life.

If no improvements are made to improve PE programs nationwide, the nation’s already declining health would worsen. With Americans becoming more obese and living a fast food lifestyle with no physical activity, this could lead to a health care disaster in the future. With health care costs rising, more Americans are susceptible to health care problems if they are unhealthy and overweight. If the nation’s health continues to become worse, health care rates will rise and the amount of government funding given to health care would have to increase.

If you support the effort to help improve physical education programs throughout the nation, you should make your voice heard be contacting the department of education. Everyone’s voice makes a difference and the first step to improvement is identifying the problems.