AUSTIN (AP) – With the Legislature possibly convening soon to address education funding, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs is looking to get schools that battle childhood obesity a slice of the money pie.
Combs says she is working on a plan that would reward schools up to $30 per pupil if the school meets certain nutrition and physical education standards. Details are being worked out, but Combs said she is talking with legislative leaders and the governor to get input and hopes to have a proposal together by March 1.
Gov. Rick Perry is expected to call a special legislative session, perhaps in April, to change the state’s share-the-wealth school finance system. Perry has said he wants to see a legislative consensus emerge over how to replace the existing funding system before ordering a special session.
Perry, a Republican like Combs, has been traveling the state talking up his proposed academic achievement-based financial incentives for schools.
Part of his $500 million plan, for instance, would give schools $100 more per student for each year he or she advances in high school if the student passes the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS test.
Combs’ idea is to provide similar money incentives, but to connect them with verifiable nutrition and physical fitness standards. The additional money per student might go to schools where a cafeteria works on nutrition education or where students show an average improvement in a physical activity such as running a quarter-mile, she said.