Bill introduced to expand physical education requirements

LANSING, Mich. — Rep. Maureen Stapleton, D-Detroit, has introduced a bill that would mandate physical education requirements for elementary and middle schools, according to Ann Arbor.com. Elementary students would be required to have 30 minutes of physical education twice a week, while junior high students would have 45 minutes per day. Additional health education courses would be required for all grades and all physical and health education classes would be required to have student-teacher ratios similar to other classroom settings, Ann Arbor.com reported.

Several districts already meet some of the proposed requirements, according to Ann Arbor.com. Traverse City Area Public Schools, for example, does not meet the middle school requirements but exceeds the requirements for elementary students.

SOURCE:

AnnArbor.com, “Bill would mandate physical education in all public K-12 schools,” Dec. 31, 2011

FURTHER READING:

Michiganvotes.org, “2011 House Bill 5019: Mandate school physical and health education hours”