Across America, there is an increase in risk factors for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, low bone density, obesity, and diabetes.  Along with increased risk of developing breast, colon, and lung cancers (Healthy Schools).  These are all issues that would normally concern people around the age fifty or older, but are becoming more prevalent in children.  Physical education teaches students how to live a routinely active and healthy lifestyle.  It provides structure that meets the developmental needs of students.  It also helps to develop social skills, and essential behavior to get along with others (Physical Education).  Students are starting to lack physical activity in their everyday lives.  This leads to imbalanced diet and weight-gain.  Physical education needs to be taught as more of a priority for students every day from elementary school through high school to help improve student’s health throughout their lives.

There has been a growing issue concerning the health and fitness of the children for the past few decades.  It was in the 1960’s when physical education became mandatory in every public school, but since then there have been varying degrees of implication.  Since 1999, States and schools have had to cut their physical education programs due to budget and time restraints especially in recent years.  Increasing core curriculums, and basing school and teacher success off test scores has created a larger focus on standard classes such as math, English, science, and social studies, which takes time and resources away from extracurricular classes such as physical education and the arts.  

Childhood obesity and type II diabetes, are becoming problems for children and adolescents due to many different possible factors.  Some people believe it is because of added chemicals in food or more genetically altered or procced food, but most agree that there is a lack of physical activity in today’s youth (Todaro).  The increase in the number of health issues children are facing do not have much effect on physical education programs in schools because it is not an issue of if students benefit from physical education, but it is a funding problem for education which is pushed back to physical education.  Most people know there are obvious benefits of having physical education programs in place, but there is a larger issue preventing physical education from combating this epidemic, money.  

Schools budgets are allocated by states.  Therefore, it is the state that makes the decision on what subject or programs receives however much money.  School districts then obtain the funds and change their curriculums based on that.  Most states and school districts value core classes over what they perceive to be extracurricular classes.  When schools need more money, they must cut programs, and physical education and the arts are usually the first to be cut.   

Due to budget restraints physical education programs are being put on the back burner.  Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois just recently passed a law in August to shorten physical education requirements to only three days.  He did this because he already knew that schools had to cut physical education teachers due to budget, so for their greater good he went ahead and cut the program.  Other people are proposing that there could be more budget friendly solutions such as more recess time, more at-home outdoor activities, sports participation, or other classrooms could implement physical activities and programs into their normally sedentary classes.  

Physical education in schools has been decreasing since 1999, while sports participation has increased.  The cut to the amount of days states mandate physical education has created a stronger look at the quality of education that physical education is projecting.  Many people still believe physical education is still about learning about sports instead of learning how to behavior with others, fine tuning motor skills, and stimulating learning. It has also held more students accountable for participating in physical education since they do not have the class as often.  

Student athletes have been increasing since Title IX due largely to a better opportunity for girls to play sports.  Boy’s participation in sports have also increased due to the variety of sports offered and less stigmas about sports.  The addition of more variety of sports has given more students an opportunity to choose their physical activity.  Schools can afford to increase sports instead of physical education because they have started “pay-to-play” that makes students that can afford to pay a basic sports participation fee to help support the team pay a beginning fee (Toporek).  Sports have similar benefits for children and adolescence as physical education, and government officials are starting to consider it for a more affordable alternative.  Although, there is still an issue with putting an emphasis on sports instead of physical education because not every student can or wants to play sports.  Sports are before or after school activities, while physical education is a structured class throughout the week.  Students that only have access to sports instead of physical education classes, and do not participate in sports, might fall through the cracks of the education system and never can learn proper health and fitness.

Educators believe there should be more emphasis on exercise and sports to promote healthy learning for children.  Health and wellness education would be passed from physical education teachers to academic teachers if schools had to drop physical education programs.  Requiring all teachers to incorporate physical activities into their lessons would not only be out of their regular scope of their practice, but it would be cut out planning time for their class, and shorten class times.  Physical education teachers feel as though their work is under-valued because they go to college for at least four years studying the subject, while other educators might only take a semester class on the subject (Long).  

Paul Zientarski is a strong advocate for not only keeping physical education in school, but to also make it a core class.  Zientarski started his everyday physical education program in 2001 when he started noticing physical education programs around the country being cut.  He changed his physical education program to focus more on being fit and healthy instead of sports focused, and he started to notice changes in his students throughout their lives.  Students’ academic levels soared and scored of the best in world.  His students also had some of the lowest obesity rates in the country (Zientarski).  All of this caught a lot of attention across the world, and other school have been able to adopt the program and mimic its success.  Zientarski even argues that not only does physical education need to be taught every day, but it also needs to be considered a core class to help students succeed.  

Dr. McKenzie did follow-up research for Zientarski’s correlation and discovered the holistic benefits of physical education.  They discovered that learning about proper physical, mental, and overall health education benefits students inside and outside the classroom in the long-term.  It improved students’ academic performance, ability to focus, while developing their social skill and fine motor skills.  The research supported the importance of physical education in schools.  They found that if physical educators cannot teach it then doing set programs everyday will still benefit students (McKenzie).  The source Dr. McKenzie used, LongTerm effects of a physical education curriculum and staff development program: SPARK. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, fully supported her research because it gave proof that it is possible to include physical education in different class rooms and it benefited the students academically and in their lives. This created a positive and encouraging environments for students to learn which made physical education more of a positive impact in their lives and something they are more likely to continue throughout their lives.

The amount of physical education schools can afford effects every student.  Without proper solution soon, at least a generation of American students will suffer from a lack of proper health and fitness education.  It has been proven by many researchers such as Zientarski, McKenzie, and Lee that young students need physical education to reduce health risks.  Each researcher comes up with their own solution for the issue, while other researchers argue against those very solutions.  It is not yet clear as to how schools can continue to support physical education if their overall budget stays the same or lessens, but there are some possibilities worth considering right now.  Cutting core class time to make physical education a core class because with the proper discipline and physical activity classes will not need to be as longer than an hour. Or more opportunity to play sports.  Or requiring regular educators to implement physical activities into their classrooms.  Ignoring this growing health crisis will cost America’s children their happiness and healthy future.
