Even as Schools Battle Obesity, Physical Education Is Sidelined Ronny Rodriguez, a physical education instructor at Sheridan Academy for Young Leaders, an elementary school in the Bronx, ran 12 students through a rigorous 50-minute class. More than a half-century ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower formed the President's Council on Youth Fitness, and today Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Michelle Obama are among those making childhood obesity a public cause. But even as virtually every state has undertaken significant school reforms, many American students are being granted little or no time in the gym. In its biennial survey of high school students across the nation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in June that nearly half said they had no physical education classes in an average week. In New York City, that number was 20.5 percent, compared with 14.4 percent a decade earlier, according to the C.D.C. That echoed findings by New York City's comptroller, in October, of inadequate physical education at each of the elementary schools that auditors visited. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found just 20 percent of elementary schools in San Francisco's system were meeting the state's requirements: 20 minutes per day. At Anatola Elementary School in Van Nuys, Calif., not only are there no gym teachers, but there is also no gym. The principal, Miriam King, has relied on $15-an-hour aides to oversee once-weekly exercise regimens for her 450 students at an outside playground. "Sometimes, when it is raining, we just cancel," Ms. King said. In the Miami-Dade School District in Florida, physical education classes for middle school students were threatened by state legislation last year, in the face of anemic local tax collections and dropping property values. But the district's top health educator, Jayne D. Greenberg, watched in thankful relief as a grass-roots effort mounted enough political pressure to beat back the proposed cuts. Still, Dr. Greenberg said, she has had to "double up some of the elementary physical education classes." In East Harlem, at TAG Young Scholars, an elementary and middle school for gifted students, there was no gym teacher for elementary students, according to Patricia Saydah, whose son Mitchell Deutsch just finished the first grade there. Art teachers and guidance counselors oversaw the classes, and students were sometimes called on to demonstrate stretching, Mitchell said. Next year threatens more hardship: One of the four schools that share TAG's building is expanding, further straining the sole gym. Ms. Saydah said she was concerned with Mitchell's ability to focus in class without physical activity most days. "He comes out of school and he is bouncing off the walls," she said. Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, has proposed injecting language into the federal budget creating incentives for schools to report how much physical activity students are getting. He also asked the Government Accountability Office to look into the issue and, in February, it released a survey showing that while schools appeared more aware of the benefits of physical education, "they have reduced the amount of time spent" on such classes. Principals most frequently blame budget cuts, and in New York, they also cite pressures to devote resources to test preparation, and what one union leader called a lack of interest from the department headquarters. "There does not appear to be a promotion, or support, from the Department of Education for daily physical education in many of our high schools," said Jeff Engel, a vice principal at Long Island City High School, in Queens, who is a member of the executive board of the principals" union. He said that his own school provided daily physical education, but that many did not. We have a huge obesity epidemic in the city, yet we see many of our high schools going to nondaily physical education. According to the city comptroller's audit, none of the 31 elementary schools that auditors visited were holding physical education classes as frequently as required: every day for kindergarten through third grade and three times a week for grades four through six, for a minimum of 120 minutes weekly; and at least 90 minutes a week for grades seven and eight. In grades 7 through 12, state guidelines call for physical education three times a week in one semester and twice a week in another. Kathleen Grimm, New York City's deputy schools chancellor for operations, said the Bloomberg administration required adequate physical education in schools, but acknowledged it had work to do. Since principals face challenges in providing space and time for those classes, she said, the administration hoped to put a plan in place by summer's end to provide them "better support" across all areas of education, including physical education. Vivian Yee contributed reporting.