This Democrat Wants Your Kids To Weigh In At School And Have It Reported To Department of Education
If you haven’t been paying attention to the Congressional race in Maine’s 2nd district, you should be. The Hill listed it as one of 5 sleeper races to watch and it features a candidate – Democrat Emily Cain – who wants our kids to have to weigh in at school and then have their weights and heights transmitted to the Department of Education. Seriously.
From the Portland Press Herald covering a bill sponsored by Cain in the Maine State Legislature:
“The bill would have required Maine schools to measure the height and weight of all students in kindergarten and grades one, three, five, seven and nine, and report the data to the department [of education].”
Wow – talk about big government! Wonder if Cain is going to be talking to Maine parents about this plan on the campaign trail. We kind of doubt it.
NRCC Comment: “Maine parents should really question Emily Cain’s priorities and what she would do if she got to Washington. The fact that Cain thinks that the government should have the right to weigh our children and keep records of such information shows just how extreme Cain really is.”– NRCC Spokesman Ian Prior
Bill to track weight of students rejected; State House: Instead, schools will be asked to volunteer the data so obesity can be gauged.
Portland Press Herald – May 16, 2007 Wednesday
Blethen Maine News Service – KEITH EDWARDS
Copyright 2007 Portland Newspapers
SECTION: LOCAL & STATE; Pg. B2
The Legislature’s Education Committee rejected a bill Tuesday that would have tracked statewide obesity trends by weighing students in several grades.
Lawmakers instead voted to send a letter to the Department of Education asking schools to offer the data volun-tarily.
The bill would have required Maine schools to measure the height and weight of all students in kindergarten and grades one, three, five, seven and nine, and report the data to the department.
Bill sponsor Rep. Emily Cain, D-Orono, said the data would be kept anonymous and would be reported for the grades as a whole, not by individual student. She said the state needs reliable data on obesity in youths to decide how best to fight it, and to measure whether those efforts are working.
“It’s just to help us, as policymakers, get better information to make better decisions for our kids and schools,” Cain said.
However, the committee voted unanimously in favor of an “ought not to pass” recommendation, killing the bill.
Legislators said they don’t want to weigh schools down with a mandate for body mass index testing, which, they believe, most are already doing.
They voted to send a letter to the Department of Education asking department officials to use data from the ap-proximately 15 percent of Maine schools that already report such data to the state, and ask the rest of the state’s schools to voluntarily report the information.
“I don’t think we have to tell schools to do one more thing, especially if they’re already doing it,” said Rep. Patricia Sutherland, D-Chapman. “I’d assume most school nurses do the height and weight stuff as a routine every year any-way.”
Several school nurses and advocates for health organizations spoke in favor of the bill, saying it could provide solid data on obesity and measure whether solutions are working.
“Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Maine for both men and women,” said Dennise D. Whit-ley, Maine advocacy director for the American Heart Association. “Obesity is overtaking tobacco as the No. 1 modifi-able risk factor.”
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-139511149.html