Face The State Staff Report
The State Board of Education is now considering how to implement legislation passed earlier this year that imposes limits on the accessibility of soft drinks available at Colorado public schools. Colorado’s superintendents maintain that such decisions should be left to local districts.
“There has been a trend lately from the federal or state government to pass regulations and force the school districts to comply,” said Gerald Keefe, superintendent of the Kit Carson school district.
During the 2008 legislation session, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 129, which requires public schools, including charters, to avoid making soft drinks and other heavily sugared beverages available to students in vending machines, cafeterias and at on-campus events. Sen. Dan Gibbs, D-Silverthorne, sponsored the legislation and sold it as a health measure and way to fight childhood obesity. Though Colorado is one of the leanest states, rates of child obesity is on the rise. According to the Colorado Children's campaign, as of 2005 nearly 29 percent of Colorado children ages 2 to 14 were considered overweight or at risk for being overweight.
Gibbs did not return Face The State’s request for an interview.
“I don’t think anything mandated from the government like this really changes behaviors,” Keefe said. “When they raised the drinking age to 21 did every 18-year old stop drinking?”
According to Keefe, there are better ways to address issues of health and obesity. He suggested educating students about personal choice and responsibility at the elementary level and advised districts to stop cutting back on recess to prepare for the Colorado Student Assessment Program exams. The seniors in his district, Keefe added, use vending machine revenues to pay for a yearly trip, and the new regulations threaten that source of funding.
Paula Stephenson, director of the Colorado Rural Schools Caucus, which represents 115 of Colorado’s 140 rural school districts, said many rural districts rely on similar funding from beverage sales. Lots of districts sign contracts to exclusively sell a certain soft drink, like Coca Cola or Pepsi, in exchange for funding that supports school programs. Stephenson said districts are nervous this money will go away once the new healthy beverage regulations take effect.
But Stephenson says the heart of the issues is local control. “We believe in local control in rural communities,” she said. “The legislature is stepping on the toes of the local school boards.”
State Board of Education member Peggy Littleton, R-Colorado Springs, is adamantly opposed to the regulations and predicts the board will only adopt the minimum requirements outlined in the bill. "You cannot legislate people's eating habits," she said and warned that Gibbs has a "healthy snack bill" coming down the pipe this session.
The board is holding a public hearing about the beverage regulations at its regular meeting next month.