Health classes may be required

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — New Mexico high school students are two days away from finding out if they'll be facing a new graduation requirement beginning in 2006.

That's all that remains of the New Mexico Legislature's 2005 regular session, and of the chances for a bill being sponsored by Rep. Irvin Harrison, D-Gallup, mandating a semester of health and nutrition to become law.

The bill passed the House 41-19 and made it through the Public Affairs Committee of the Senate, where it's being sponsored by Ben Altamirano, D-Silver City. But it still needs approval from the Corporations and Transportation Committee before it can head to the Senate floor.

Bill Bright, a former board member of Gallup-McKinley County Schools and current chair of the district's Health and Fitness Committee, likes the bill.

"(Health education) is an important factor in prevention," he said. "We have the choice to spend the money to prevent the illnesses or wait until they get sick ... it's going to save the taxpayers money in the long run."

The U.S. Department of Health's figures on child obesity and eating habits are not encouraging. The Department reports that only 2 percent of children eat a diet consistent with federal nutrition recommendations and that 35 percent lead physically inactive lifestyles. Both factors have combined to cause a doubling of child obesity rates during the past two decades and a tripling among adolescents.

According to the bill's fiscal impact report, the state spends $324 million treating chronic diseases including heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes attributable to obesity in adults. People overweight in childhood, meanwhile, have up to an 80 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults, according to the U.S. Health Department.

With an additional health and nutrition class, the bill would raise the minimum number of units necessary for high school graduation from 23 to 24. It would also make nutrition education mandatory for most health professionals educated in the state.

Besides mandating class requirements, the bill calls for the creation of a nutrition council under the New Mexico Department of Health that would strive, in its own words, "to improve the quality of food grown in, produced in or imported into New Mexico or exported from New Mexico and to educate New Mexico citizens in good nutritional choices."

While the bill asks for appropriations for the Public Education Department to help create the necessary curriculum and help districts implement it, there's no money for the additional supplied or staffing it might demand of districts.

A similar bill was introduced to the Legislature last year, but failed to pass. Its supporters are hoping for better luck this time around.