By The Oregonian Editorial Board
February 15, 2010
One notion that has bubbled up in recent years as a possible strategy to counteract childhood obesity is the idea of taxing soda pop.

It’s a dreadful idea, which deserves the fate that has, thus far, befallen it — to fizzle out.

Last week, when first lady Michelle Obama unveiled her “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood obesity, she wisely did not push for such a tax. But her husband, President Barack Obama, has called the soda tax worth exploring, and it could still re-emerge as a recommendation from a federal task force the Obamas are organizing to study childhood obesity.

But we hope not. Taxing soda pop would be intrusive and overbearing and, once put in motion, it would have no logical limits. If a tax could be applied to soda, then why not high-fat foods, like cheese or chocolate? Cake and cookies? Please.

No, the first lady’s impulse to focus much of her anti-obesity campaign on getting kids moving is exactly right. And it occurred to us when she unveiled her campaign last week that she would do well to visit Oregon. When it comes to counteracting childhood obesity, Oregon is both in the vanguard — and in the rear guard.

On the good side, Oregon is turning into a leader in reforming school nutrition. There’s plenty more to do, of course. But many Oregon schools are experimenting with gardens, farmers and schools are working harder to connect, the state has set nutritional standards for food sold in vending machines and, at long last, the state has even cracked down on the sale of soda and other sugary drinks in school.

In many parts of the country, this is still a very real problem, and it’s one that Obama highlighted last week. But in Oregon, only water, 100 percent juice and skim or low-fat milk can be sold in K-8 public schools.

Vending machine standards in high schools are, quite properly, more relaxed, with diet sodas and sports drinks added to the mix.

On the not-so-good side of the ledger, though, there’s the truly abysmal state of physical education in Oregon. To be sure, the Legislature has set a lofty goal for improvement. By 2017, elementary school students are supposed to get 150 minutes per week of P.E. and middle school students are supposed to get 225 minutes.

But 2017 is a long way off. Health advocates monitoring progress toward that goal say they don’t think schools have made any. In fact, it’s been hard for advocates even to get accurate, usable data from the state Department of Education on how much P.E. is offered to schoolchildren right now.

The state Department of Education’s strategy for meeting the 2017 P.E. standard? As the nonprofit Community Health Partnership’s Mary Lou Hennrich remarked, tartly, Monday, the strategy appears to be: Pray for a miracle on Dec. 31, 2016.

That’s in keeping with the nation’s general strategy for dealing with obesity — pray for a miracle drug. But that, too, is not going to happen. As Dr. Minot Cleveland told the Oregon Legislature last year, “We cannot treat our way out of the obesity epidemic,” which is already costing Oregon taxpayers $780 million a year.

The medicine that works both as a vaccine and a treatment to counteract childhood obesity — and it improves academic performance, too, Cleveland said — is physical education.

Maybe a visit from the first lady would stimulate the state Department of Education, school districts and schools to push a little harder to reach an important state goal.

“Let’s move,” indeed.

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To read the original article, click here http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/02/powering_up_the_playground.html.