Mississippi Department of Education board members last month voted to forgo a school vending policy banning all soft drinks—even diet versions—in favor of a national plan devised by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. The Alliance plan, which includes input from groups from the American Heart Association to soft-drink vendors, allows soft-drink vending machines a presence on school property until 2009, with no cut-off point whatsoever for diet drinks.
The Clarion-Ledger quoted one board member storming out of the vote, calling it a political issue.
"I have never been on this board, in six years, where something has gotten political," board member Sondra Caillavet told that paper. The Biloxi teacher chaired the vending machine task force and become convinced that sodas should be banned from schools.
Jackson Public Schools parent Jenny Neal said the issue was probably less about politics and more about money.
"The schools get money from those machines, so I think they're seeing it as kind of a deal with the devil in that you know what soft drinks do to children, but we're also hurting for money," Neal said. "Yes I know soft drinks aren't good for you. No, I rarely keep a bottle of it in the refrigerator, but, yes, I know we need that revenue."
Jackson Public Schools, a highly populated but underfinanced district, collects about $140,000 annually from drink sales.
The soft-drink issue has been slowly brewing as public awareness of the damage carbonated, sweetened drinks do to health grows. A rat tooth dropped in a glass of some soft drinks will fizzle away into nothingness after a few hours, and medical reports reveal similar damage to tooth enamel with constant exposure.
Centers for Disease Control statistics indicate that an abominable 65 percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, and that Mississippi is one of the three states, including Louisiana and West Virginia, where 25 percent of adults are obese.
CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, said in an earlier teleconference that the top five causes of death in the U.S. are heart disease, cancer, stroke, lung disease and accidents, though obesity is the top cause of the top three killers. In 2004, the CDC found that 9.5 percent of Mississippi's population has diabetes, which beats out the national average of 7 percent.
In 2003, Mississippi also had the distinction of having 15.7 percent of its high school population being overweight. This, too, beat out the national figure ranking most of the nation's kids as 11.1 percent overweight.
Public schools are also placing less emphasis on physical education. Calls to a random assortment of elementary schools revealed that some schools have either downgraded the number of recess periods, or done away with them entirely.
Galloway Elementary, for instance, has only one period designated for outdoor or playtime activity, while Isabele Elementary has no recess time whatsoever. Pecan Park Elementary integrated its only remaining recess time with a physical education class, and Walton Elementary has no official recess, leaving exercise up to the preference of the teacher over that class.
"This is very alarming," said Parents for Public Schools Executive Director Susan Womack, who partially blames the shrinking presence of activity time to renewed emphasis on test preparation. "What I saw launching with the (2001) No Child Left Behind Act, and the accountability that's designed into it to prepare children for standardized tests, is that schools began eliminating recess so that teachers had more time to work with students to get them prepared for tests, and I think that's horrible. Our children need a whole education, which means taking care of the whole child. They need recess time."
Womack added that before No Child Left Behind even hit the schools, districts were already cutting recess time completely out of middle schools.
"Imagine sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders with their growing bodies just sitting in class with all that extra energy. They need outlets for physical expression to concentrate in class, and they have absolutely no opportunity unless they're involved in sports," Womack said.
The vending-machine policy isn't finalized until one more vote, and not until the board makes room for public comment.
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