Sample Letter to Your Senators and Representatives (Prepared by NASPE)

Date: 

Your Name and Address: 

Dear Senator ___________: 
or

Dear Congressman (woman) ___________: 

Physical education is on the Congressional agenda for the first time in over a decade! On May 27 Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) introduced the Physical Education
for Progress - or "PEP" - Act which authorizes $400 million over a five-year period for grants to local education agencies for physical education programs. The
grants can be used to provide physical education equipment and support to students, to enhance physical education curricula, and to train and educate physical
education teachers. 

This important legislation needs your support! Every student in our nation’s schools, from kindergarten through grade 12, should have the opportunity to participate
in quality physical education. Children need to know that physical activity can help them feel good, be successful in school and work, and stay healthy. 

As a nation, we are not living up to the recommendations of the U.S. Surgeon General’s 1996 Report on Physical and Health or the recommendations of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that daily physical education be provided for all students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Fewer than one in four
children get 20 minutes of vigorous activity every day. In fact, the percentage of overweight young Americans has more than doubled in the past 30 years. The
impact of our poor health habits is staggering — the nation spends more than $100 billion per year on lifestyle related disease, and inactivity and poor diet cause
more than 300,000 deaths per year in the United States. 

The PEP Act would begin to correct these deficiencies. It would authorize funds ($400 million over a five-year period) to make grants to local educational agencies
for physical education programs that, among other things, require at least 150 minutes per week of physical education for elementary, middle and secondary
school students, and daily physical education if practicable. 

I urge you to support (cosponsor) this legislation so that our schoolchildren will gain the knowledge, skills, and motivation to adopt healthy, physically-active
lifestyles. Children must be educated mentally AND physically to be healthy, productive citizens. 

Sincerely, 

Your Name

Back to Sports Webzine

back to www.SportsSales.com