Nobody is saying that schools are solely at fault for the childhood obesity epidemic. There are far too many culpable contributors to single out one for special blame. By the same token when there are a number of suspects, it’s easy to sit back in the shadows and let someone else (i.e. Ronald McDonald) take the heat.
But, when any one of these contributors has a legitimate chance to win this war and they fail to take action, it kind of makes you wonder about their seriousness, their sincerity. It makes all their talk look like…just more talk.
A Quick Survey of Websites Reveals
Despite the scope of this epidemic,* a survey of school websites across the state reveals that childhood obesity goes completely unmentioned in school mission statements. Drilling even deeper into the PE sections of the sites (if there is one) is equally non-productive. If childhood obesity is mentioned at all, it’s buried in professional jargon and it shows few signs of being a priority for anyone.
But if school board members and administrators fail to prioritize the problem, physical educators will be required to focus on less urgent issues while Illinois' childhood obesity tumor continues to fester and grow more and more malignant with each passing day.
Almost $4 Million Per Day, $1.5 Billion Per Year
However, when all the other culpable contributors are doing little more than pointing fingers at one another, why should schools stand up and take responsibility for resolving this epidemic? The first answer is that schools offer the ONLY place where this problem can be systematically addressed.
The second answer is that according to figures recently derived from the US Center for Disease Control and the US Census Bureau, our nation spends an average of $1.91 per individual resident every single day on obesity and related medical problems.**
That being the case, Illinois Schools, with a combined population of over 2 million K-12 students is inadvertently flushing ALMOST 4 MILLION DOLLARS down the drain every single day by failing to take systematic, preventative action against childhood obesity. On an annual basis this figure explodes to over A BILLION AND A HALF DOLLARS!
Fiscal Responsibility in Illinois’ Schools
Now in the midst of the current economic crisis you’d think that fiscally responsible school board members and school administrators would find this kind of savings worthy of their attention and they’d be scrambling to plug the gushers in this dike. But to date there’s little evidence of scrambling, gusher plugging, or anything other than continuing to do what schools (and most other contributors) have been doing for a long time now…talking.
Check Out Your Own School District
In order to discover how much your schools are flushing down the drain annually by failing to take systematic, preventative action against childhood obesity, just take the number of K-12 students in your school district times $698. Make sure you’re sitting down when you do this calculation.
*The US Surgeon General has called obesity “America’s # 1 health threat.” The obesity epidemic dwarfs polio, diphtheria, small pox, HIV Aids, and H1N1 COMBINED yet systematic solutions are almost impossible to find.
**The Brookings Institute estimates that America spends $215 billion dollars annually on obesity and related medical problems. The US Census Bureau recently found that we have over 308 million residents in this country. Divide $215 billion by 308 million and you’ll get $698 per individual per year. Divide $698 by 365 (days in the year) and you’ll get $1.91 per individual resident per day.
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