"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities." -Theodore Roosevelt "In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American." -Theodore Roosevelt "Racism is not dead, but it is on life support -- kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as 'racists'" -Thomas Sowell "Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole." -Thomas Sowell "Character, not circumstances, makes the man." -Booker T. Washington "When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear." - Thomas Sowell

The research strongly supports the inclusion of physical activity as a boost to learning and maintaining wellness, both physical and mental. My one concern was mandating the amount of time when there are already so many mandated elements in place for schools. I see now that it reads, "with a goal of 30 minutes daily." I support this bill, HB 873.

While we support the intent of HB 873 to promote student wellness, the bill is not feasible within the current elementary school day. School divisions are already required to implement extensive literacy instruction, intervention, and tutoring mandates under the Virginia Literacy Act. These requirements leave little to no flexibility in scheduling. Increasing required physical activity minutes without adjusting existing instructional mandates or extending the school day forces divisions into impossible trade-offs and makes compliance unrealistic. For these reasons, we cannot support HB 873 as currently drafted.