Paul von Hippel, researcher at LBJ School of Public Affairs.
AUSTIN, Texas - Between 2007 and 2011, the State of Texas spent $37 million on grants to help high-poverty middle schools reduce obesity through physical education. The grant program, called Texas Fitness Now, provided grants to the poorest 24 percent of Texas middle schools in 2007-09, and it made grants to the poorest 40 percent of middle schools in 2009-11. Yet a new article by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin reports that Texas Fitness Now had no effect on children ' s weight. Middle school obesity rates held steady during Texas Fitness Now, both in schools that received the grants and in schools that did not. The article, written by Paul von Hippel and Kyle Bradbury at UT Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs, is the largest study ever conducted of a physical education (PE) program. Using publicly available data, the authors analyzed obesity rates at more than 1,150 middle schools enrolling more than 770,000 students per year. Schools spent most of their grants on sports and fitness equipment, according to the article.
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