GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Childhood obesity, which is caused by a sedentary lifestyle and poor daily diet, is a serious health crisis in our country. Forty-three percent of the city’s schoolchildren are overweight or obese. Between 30 and 40 percent of all children born in the United States in 2000 are expected to develop Type 2 diabetes. These statistics call for action.

If the city’s Department of Education genuinely wants to address what some health experts are describing as an epidemic, it needs to act quickly to improve the quality of the food that is offered every day to children in our public schools. The city also needs to make sure our children are getting the physical exercise they need and that New York State Law requires.

As parents on the Wellness Committee at our schools, we have suggestions for how the DOE can combat childhood obesity — without banning homemade baked goods from school fundraisers.

• Remove the vending machines from our middle and high schools. These machines sell highly-processed foods such as Doritos, Frito Lays chips, and Pop-Tarts. Marketing these foods and making them available every day to our children is not only filling our children with empty calories they don’t need, it’s also developing in them a lifetime of bad eating habits. (more…)

RACE TO THE TOP RECAP:

• New York was second to last in Race to the Top’s first round. (GothamSchools, Times, Daily News, Post)
• Governor Paterson says the state will apply for funds again in the second round of competition. (NY1)
• To boost its chances, New York City is considering applying on its own in the second round. (Daily News)
• The state’s Race to the Top application included plans to spend $200,000 on office furniture. (Post)
• Lavish spending on desks and chairs appears to be regular at the State Education Department. (Post)
• Tennessee and Delaware were the only two states to win funds in the first round. (Wall Street Journal)
• Education officials in those states say teamwork was key to preparing a successful bid. (Daily News)
• Thomas Carroll says the contest’s outcome shows that NY has to lift its cap on charter schools. (Post)
• The Times urges major changes before the competition’s June 1 second-round deadline.
• The Post paints the outcome as a triumph of the teachers union over the state’s welfare.

IN OTHER NEWS:

• The city is placing students in the schools that were originally set to close. (GothamSchools, Daily News)
• Those students’ school placements now depend on the city’s appeal of the closure ruling. (Daily News)
• The closure decision could exacerbate the space crunch at several city school buildings. (Times)
• A rally at Harlem’s PS 123 targeted Eva Moskowitz relationship with Chancellor Klein. (Daily News)
• Errol Louis writes that anti-Moskowitz sentiment is “much ado about nothing.” (Daily News)
• For the second time, Gov. Paterson is delaying payments to school districts. (Times, Post, Daily News)
• The city’s program to pay its poor for good behavior has yielded mixed results and will end. (AP, Times)
• To boost the city’s census response rate, some schools are structuring lessons about the survey. (NY1)
• A provision in the state’s new pension law will allow teachers to retire earlier with no penalty. (Post)
• The state’s schools hired more teachers in recent years, even as enrollment dropped. (AP)
• The Times says the city should institute bridge tolls to pay for student MetroCards.
• Diane Ravitch says Ed Sec Arne Duncan is right that standards in the state are too low. (Daily News)
• The private school started by the Blue Man Group is struggling to stick to its progressive roots. (Times)
• A national watchdog group says New York’s anti-bullying efforts are lacking. (Daily News)
• Jaime Escalante, the East L.A. math teacher shown in the movie “Stand and Deliver,” has died. (Times)
• A new book argues that only top students should take Advanced Placement classes. (Inside Higher Ed)

NO JOKE: 

• The Post says schools get too much funding and ought to be “put on a starvation diet.”
• An Upper East Side man collects relics from the East New York school he attended in the 1950s. (Times)
• The teachers found canoodling in their classroom are being charged with a crime. (Daily News, Post)
• A nightclub hosted by a Philadelphia charter school to make extra cash will shut down. (Times, AP)