New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. testifies before the New York State Assembly Committee on Education on January 31, 2008. Thompson, who is joined by and Executive Deputy Comptroller Eduardo Castell, discussed the importance of ensuring that all City schools meet mandated physical education standards. Photo credit: Marla Maritzer

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Concerned about the drastic rise in obesity among school-aged children, New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. testified this morning before the New York State Assembly Committee on Education to discuss the importance of ensuring that all City schools meet mandated physical education standards.

The testimony, which is available at www.comptroller.nyc.gov, focused on the value of physical education to the health and well being of students in the New York City public school system.

“Statistics show that the incidence of childhood obesity has quadrupled in New York State since the 1970s and tripled in the past 10 years alone,” Thompson said. “Obesity is associated with Type II, or late onset, diabetes, which is increasingly affecting children and has reached epidemic levels in New York State. To address this growing problem, we must expand physical education in our city’s public schools, particularly in elementary and middle schools.”

Thompson went on to add that the New York City DOE should improve its efforts to track whether every student is receiving enough physical education class time as mandated by the state.

“Unfortunately, there is currently no means of determining whether students in New York City are receiving the mandated time for physical education. Anecdotal evidence collected by my office suggests they are not,” he added. “Rather than basing policy on anecdotal information, we must reach out to every school for an assessment of how they are, or are not, meeting the State physical education requirements.”

In September, the Comptroller’s Office released a report indicating that while in many neighborhoods of the City people are getting healthier, lower income New Yorkers are suffering increasingly diminished health outcomes.

That report, “Health and Wealth: Assessing and Addressing Health Disparities in New York City,” showed that between 1990 and 2005, disparities in hospitalization and mortality rates based on income have widened among New York City neighborhoods for heart disease, cancer and, particularly, diabetes.

On the heels of that report, Thompson set a letter to school’s Chancellor Joel Klein calling on the DOE to comply with the state-mandated number of days that schoolchildren are provided with physical education classes. 

“Given the results of my office’s disparity study, it is imperative that we now give student health and fitness the priority they deserve,” Thompson concluded. “It is no exaggeration to say that the future of our City and State depend on it.”

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