Social Science, Equal Justice, and Public Health Policy: Lessons from Los Angeles - Journal of Public Health Policy
Robert Garcia from The City Project and Chad Fenwick from the Los Angeles Unified School District have published an article on Social Science, Equal Justice, and Public Health Policy: Lessons from Los Angeles, in the Journal of Public Health Policy (2009) 30, S26–S32.
The article is a case study on using research and law to change public health policy. The City Project and United Teachers of Los Angeles, parents, and school officials are engaged in a strategic campaign to enforce physical education in public schools. The campaign has four major elements. First, the teachers’ union has organized a public organizing campaign to support physical education. Second, The City Project filed administrative complaints on behalf of parents, youth groups, and health advocates under civil rights and education laws to require the school district to enforce physical education requirements. Third, in response to the campaign and complaints, the Board of Education unanimously adopted a resolution to enforce physical education laws. Fourth, the teachers, The City Project, and school district Superintendent Ramon Cortines are now working on an implementation plan to enforce the physical education laws and resolution, and resolve the complaints.
The article concludes:
“Failure to enforce physical education laws is a common practice by school districts in California and across the nation. Evidence-based research documents racial, ethnic and income disparities in physical education and health. Civil rights laws can be combined with that evidence to require school districts to enforce physical education requirements to improve the health and quality of life for students. The experience in Los Angeles illustrates how research and law are used to improve physical education through the process of campaign, complaint, resolution, and implementation plan now being carried out.
“This case study provides lessons for others. Social scientists and attorneys need to collaborate to connect the dots between physical education, human health, racial and ethnic disparities, and civil rights and education laws. Foundations should fund analyses of evidence by legal practitioners, including social science research and disparities in physical education and health based on race, ethnicity, and income. Abstract policy reports and tool kits are not enough. Foundations should fund not only policy and legal advocacy outside the courts, but also litigation in the courts. Access to justice through the courts can be a profoundly democratic means of engaging, educating, and empowering people of color and low-income people to achieve concrete improvements in their lives.
“Different alternatives may be available elsewhere, but a strategic campaign including coalition building, multidisciplinary research, media, policy and legal advocacy outside the courts, and litigation is likely to be a replicable model in other states or countries.”
The online journal Peaceful Playgrounds cites The City Project's work with teachers and school officials to enforce the law as "a Tipping Point to a Physical Education Revolution."
Peaceful Playgrounds reports:
For years physical educators across the country have advocated for daily physical education for their students. Legislators have joined the bandwagon and passed legislation mandating physical education for most K-12 grade students throughout CA and across the nation. However, much to the dismay of physical educators, concerned parents, public health advocates and pediatricians, the education codes mandating physical education have been largely ignored.
That however, appears to be changing in the nation’s second largest school district, LAUSD. The City Project (a legal and policy advocacy organization), working with teachers and school officials in the Los Angeles Unified School District, are using social science and legal research to promote changes in public policy that hopefully will result in better and more equitably delivered physical education in public schools in Los Angeles, California.
Persuading other school districts to enforce physical education requirements has previously proven to be unfruitful and uneventful. But this new strategy which has played out in Los Angeles over the past year represents a thoughtful and strategic effort by key stake holders in the community and in the district has packed a powerful punch. It has leveraged the undivided attention on the part of district officials in an attempt to avoid legal action.
In the world of education, a common battle cry is “What California does the nation follows.” It appears that in the arena of equal access to daily physical education, Los Angeles Unified School District is showing the way.
Williams Complaint Seeks To Remedy Physical Education Deficiencies in Public Schools
Diverse allies have filed a Williams complaint with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to remedy physical education deficiencies. Physical education teacher vacancies, misassignments, and lack of subject matter competency is a recurring problem in various schools from semester to semester and year to year. Teacher deficiencies are part of a pattern and practice by LAUSD of failing to provide quality physical education.
Physical education matters. LAUSD is failing fitness. Physically fit students tend to do better academically and stay in school longer. The lack of quality physical education teachers and programs contributes to the epidemic of childhood obesity, particularly for low income students and students of color. Obesity rocketed from 20% to 26% in LAUSD from 1999 to 2006. 90% of LAUSD children are children of color, and 74% are low income (qualify for free or reduced meals).
The diverse alliance seeks to work with LAUSD to help students move more, eat well, stay healthy, and do their best in school in life.
The Williams complaint is not a lawsuit. The process provides LAUSD the opportunity to work with the community and health experts to enforce the law and provide quality physical education rather than risk litigation and loss of state and federal funds.
Complainants include Anonymous, LAUSD parents Ike and Irene Kaludi, LAUSD physical education teacher Cathy Figel, Anahuak Youth Association, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles, Prevention Institute, and The City Project.
LAUSD is required to remedy the deficiencies within 30 days and to report to the Complainants within 45 days.
37 school districts audited in California did not enforce state physical education minutes requirements in 2004-2006.
UTLA Physical Education Campaign "For the Health of It!"
Helping Children Move More, Eat Well, Stay Healthy, and Do their Best in School and in Life
Robert García, Executive Director and Counsel at The City Project; UTLA PE Campaign Steering Committee; Chair of the LAUSD School Bond Citizens’ Oversight Committee from 2000-2005. Adapted from United Teacher, the newspaper of United Teachers of Los Angeles.
UTLA has launched a physical education campaign to provide places and polices for children to move more, eat better, stay healthy, and do their best in school. Why? For the health of it. Physical education matters. We are failing our children in fitness. Physically fit students do better academically and do better in life.
The UTLA campaign has three main goals in the first year. First, a 55:1 cap: cap physical education class size with up to 55 students per teacher. The 55:1 cap will put physical education on an even footing with academic classes. Second, twenty a day: enforce state physical education laws requiring an average of 20 minutes of physical education every day for elementary school students. It’s the law. Third, a certificated PE instructor at every elementary school. It’s only fair to the students and teachers.
Move More. LAUSD has not enforced state physical education requirements for years. Evidence-based research proves how important moving more and eating well are for student health, youth development, and academic performance. Increased physical activity improves academic performance. Students who take part in sports and other after school activities tend to stay in school. Yet over 87% of LAUSD children were not physically fit under state Fitnessgram standards in 2004. The five largest LAUSD PE class sizes averaged 93 students in middle schools and 87.5 in high schools. Physical education classes should provide active minutes, not “sitting around waiting for the bell to ring cause there’s no balls or courts or coach watching” minutes.
At LAUSD’s South Gate High School, 1,600 children took the state Fitnessgram test and not one child passed. Forty schools did not have a single physically fit student. Less than 10% of students were physically fit in nearly one-third of the 605 schools in LAUSD. Only eight schools had student populations that are more than 50% physically fit.
LAUSD Children Failing Fitness
Percentage Physically Fit .........…..Number of Schools in LAUSD
0%………………………………………………………….4
01-5%…………………………………………………….5
86-10%………………………………………………..96
11-15%………………………………………………123
16-20%………………………………………………..83
21-25%………………………………………………..75
26-30%………………………………………………..42
31-35%………………………………………………..38
36-40%………………………………………………..22
41-45%………………………………………………..16
46-50%………………………………………………....4
>50%…………………………………………………....8
The levels of child obesity are intolerably high even for children in the best neighborhoods—ranging from 23% to 39% throughout the Los Angeles region. But there are also unfair disparities in the most disadvantaged communities. 91% of LAUSD children are children of color, and 74% are low income (qualify for free or reduced meals). Latino and black children disproportionately suffer from obesity and diabetes and other diseases related to inactivity. LAUSD provides 71% more play acres for non-Hispanic white students than for Latino students in elementary schools. Only 103 out of 605 LAUSD schools have five acres or more of playing fields, and those tend to be located in areas that are disproportionately wealthy and non-Hispanic white. There are only 30 joint use agreements between LAUSD and the City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department as of April 2006.
Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick has published an audit calling for the shared use of schools and parks as part of a strategic plan to improve recreation in every neighborhood and alleviate unfair disparities.
The UTLA campaign can help achieve those goals by supporting a master agreement to keep schools and pools open after school and on weekends, and by opposing pay to play fees for children who cannot afford them.
Eat Well. Healthy eating is critically important to improve health and reduce obesity and diabetes. LAUSD leads the country on eating well with healthy food policies. The UTLA campaign can help effectively implement the policies.
Quality Physical Education. The UTLA campaign includes more over time. PE classes should have students from only one grade level, not mixed grades. Teachers should receive continuing professional development training. Girls’ and boys’ PE classes should provide an even playing field for students and teachers. Facilities and equipment should serve the physical education needs of the children and teachers.
Places and polices for students to move more, eat well, stay healthy, and do their best in school. Our children’s lives depend on it.
Contact the LAUSD Board members to urge them to enforce physical education laws to help students stay fit, stay in school, and do better academically and in life.
LAUSD Student Obesity 26% and Climbing Faster than in Other School Districts
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has documented that obesity among school children in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LASUD) has increased from 20.2% 1999 to to 26.1% in 2006, going from 1 in 5 children being obese to over 1 in 4. The percentage of overweight school children has generally been increasing at a faster rate at LAUSD than at other school districts in Los Angeles County in the long term, and will soon hit 30% -- almost 1 in 3 children obese -- if LAUSD stands by and does nothing.
LAUSD does not enforce state physical education laws in public schools.
Open the Miguel Contreras Pool! Joint Use of Schools, Pools, and Parks
Neighborhood children and downtown residents would like to go for a swim in the new Olympic size pool at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in Pico Union, one of the most park poor parts of Los Angeles, but the parks department and the L.A. Unified School District could not agree on who would hire lifeguards to open the pool for the summer. The struggle for publlic access to Miguel Contreras reflects the bigger need for the joint use of parks and schools to make optimal use of scarce land and public resources.
The following is a list of media coverage about opening the Miguel Contreras Olympic size swimming pool in one of the most park-starved communities of Los Angeles. More broadly, Miguel Contreras shows the need for the joint use of parks, schools, and pools to give children places to have fun and engage in physical activity, and to make optimal use of scarce land and public resources.
School pool or people's plunge? Residents living near the downtown-area Miguel Contreras Learning Complex would like to take a dip in the campus' gleaming waters.
By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times, August 1, 2007
Summer Bummer
Cost of Lifeguards at Miguel Contreras School Keeps Olympic-Sized Pool Off Limits to the Community
Evan George, Staff Writer Los Angeles Downtown News June 25, 2007
Move More, Eat Well, Stay Healthy in Schools and Parks
There are unfair school, park, and health disparities in Los Angeles. The shared use of parks and schools can alleviate the lack of places to play and recreate, while making optimal use of scarce land and public resources. Unfortunately, only 103 out of 605 LAUSD schools have five acres of more of playing fields, and those tend to be located in areas that are disproportionately white and wealthy and have greater access to parks. LAUSD provides 71% more play acres for non-Hispanic white students than for Latino students in elementary schools. There were only 30 joint use agreements between LAUSD and the City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department as of April 2006.
The health implications of the lack of places to play in parks and schools are profound. In California, 73% of fifth, seventh, and ninth graders did not achieve minimum physical fitness standards in 2004. In LAUSD, 87% of students were not physically fit. Yet in 2006, 51% of school districts in California, including LAUSD, did not enforce statutory physical education requirements. At LAUSD's South Gate High School, 1,600 children took the state Fitnessgram test and not one passed. Forty schools did not have a single physically fit student. Less than 10% of students were physically fit in nearly one-third of the 605 schools in LAUSD. Only eight schools had student populations that are more than 50% physically fit.
The
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is investing over $20
billion to build new schools and modernize existing schools, one
of the largest public work projects in history. School construction
and modernization will enhance academic excellence, physical fitness,
and appreciation of the arts for the children of the Los Angeles
region now and for generations to come. Schools should serve as centers
of their communities, with playgrounds and playing fields open
after school and on weekends. New construction and modernization
will also create local jobs for local workers and stimulate the
Los Angeles economy. The school construction program will create over
174,000 jobs, $9 billion in wages, and $900 million in local and
state taxes. The school district has targeted small businesses
and local workers to ensure they receive a fair share of these
benefits.
The City Project's Executive Director Robert García signed the
official voter pamphlet ballot arguments in favor of Measure K
and Measure R, which together provide $7.22 billion for school
construction and modernization in local bonds plus billions more
in matching state and federal funds. He served as Chairman of the LAUSD School Bond Citizens' Oversight Committee for five years, from 2000 until 2005.
LAUSD Pulls "Pay to Play" Proposal, Saving Non-Profit Youth Groups from Fees to Use Public School Facilities
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has withdrawn a proposal to charge non-profit youth groups to use public school facilities, including playing fields and classrooms. LAUSD may reconsider the proposal in December 2005 or January 2006, but before then LAUSD will seek funding from alternative sources.
The City Project is committed to working with LAUSD to find funding alternatives to keep school facilities free for non-profit organizations that serve at-risk youth. Children of color and low-income children disproportionately live in neighborhoods without places to play in school yards, parks, or their own homes. Fully 87% of LAUSD children are not physically fit. Physical education classes are bloated with up to 75 students, and physical education is not required after the tenth grade. LAUSD staff proposed a $78 fee plus $28 to $42 per hour to use playing fields. Grassroots groups are providing an invaluable service to keep our children and communities healthy and safe. These groups simply do not have the resources to pay to play on their own public school yards.
The City Project, Anahuak Youth Soccer Association, the California PTSA, Girl Scouts, and many others strongly opposed the proposal. The American Lung Association is opposed to the proposal based in part on their concerns for the health of our children. The LAUSD School Bond Oversight Committee has requested the information necessary for the public to understand the impact of the proposal on all the children of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has withdrawn a proposal to charge non-profit youth groups to use public school facilities, including playing fields and classrooms. LAUSD may reconsider the proposal in December 2005 or January 2006, but before then LAUSD will seek funding from alternative sources.