Thoughts on Physical Education

As part of the News in Brief section, ED Week reported that a California appeals court ruled that parents can require public schools to offer physical education.  Apparently the state education code in California requires elementary schools to offer 200 minutes of P.E. every 10 days.  Middle schools and high schools are required to offer 400 minutes every days.  I thought this was interesting for many reasons.  Although I had for the most part not great experiences in P.E. in school myself, as a parent I want my children to have P.E.  I can see that kids today need to get up and move!  I want them to be healthy and find physical activities they love.  I wonder if the increasing pressure to have students perform well on state tests is behind the move to eliminate P.E. classes that prompted these parent's lawsuit?  Could budget cuts be behind the attempt to do away with or reduce P.E.?  I know that my nephew, Andrew, who attends a public school in Davis, California, lost his second recess this year.  Apparently due to the fiscal crisis in California,  teachers have had a furlough week added onto their furlough days.  Teachers decided to do away with the second recess because they felt they did not have enough time for academic subjects with all of the lost instructional time.  It seems to me that schools  and teachers are being squeezed both ways.  They are being held accountable for making sure their students pass state tests on the one hand.  On the other hand, the situations in schools are becoming more challenging due to the budget crisis.