Art and Band parents beat back physical ed requirement for middle schoolers

Art and band parents beat back physical ed requirement for middle schoolers
By LAURA GREEN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 19, 2008

TALLAHASSEE — Bowing to Band boosters - the world's most powerful lobby, one senator joked - lawmakers backed away from mandating physical education for every Florida middle schooler.

Instead, parents would be able to let their child skip the semester of PE requirement, under an amended bill approved by a Senate committee Wednesday.

Arts activists flooded lawmakers with emails and phone calls concerned that the original version of the bill (SB610) would have limited access to their courses.

Sen. Larcenia J. Bullard, D-Miami, said she got many phone calls and about 1,400 emails from teachers of arts courses and others worried about the bill.

Most middle school students only get two electives. If PE were required, critics said, too many students would be forced to drop chorus or band to take a foreign language or remedial reading or math courses required for struggling students.

Senate education committee Chairman Sen. Don Gaetz congratulated sponsor Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, for coming up with compromise language.

"If I have to choose between band parents and anything else, I'll choose band parents," said Gaetz, former Okaloosa County Superintendent. "I know they are the most powerful lobby in the world."

The bill passed the Senate pre-k through 12 education committee with Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, dissenting.