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Anchor Lead: When you were growing up there probably weren't many overweight kids in your school, or classmates with Type 2 diabetes. Today, these conditions are common. More than 30 percent of students are overweight, and they aren't burning off a lot of calories at school. In our ongoing series the Learning Curve, KPLU's Jennifer Wing looks at why schools are cutting back on physical education at the same time childhood obesity is skyrocketing.

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If the energy from the six and seven year olds at Dearborn Park Elementary could be harnessed, the school's electricity bill would be taken care of. Little bodies tear around a big room as if they are running for their lives. This is their gym class and they love it.

First grader Dede Pullen is one of many students who adore Ed Adams, the school's physical education teacher.

Dede: He lets us do tumbling, unicycle. He lets us do anything. Makes me want to come to school every day, even on Saturdays!

Dede has a huge grin on his face as he balances his small frame on a unicycle.

Dede: Look, no hands!

Ed Adams works hard to make sure every student is active during his classes. It might be the only time they break a sweat all day.

Ed Adams: Many of our students typically go home. They stay in their house playing their computer games. 'Cause they all have computer games … their Game Boy, their X-Box and TV. Uh and then they do their homework. Every year I've seem a few more kids with asthma. Every year I've seen more and more kids with asthma. Every year I've seen more kids with diabetes.

Dearborn Park Elementary is in South Seattle and its students get between 80 to 100 minutes of physical education a week. This is much more time than what other schools offer. Even though the state requires 100 minutes a week of gym class for elementary and middle school students, most schools don't even come close to that target. School's say they need all the time they can get to focus on academics. A good example is Manitou Park Elementary in Tacoma.

The school has a beautiful rock-climbing wall, but students don't get to use it that often. On this day fourth graders are pulling themselves up, carefully checking their footing. Kids here average between 30 and 40 minutes of instructed PE a week and have one recess a day. Dan Tharp, the school's principal, would love to have more PE, but the time just isn't there.

Dan Tharp: The issue where we're really at is that we're at a six hour school day in Tacoma and when we take away our ninety minute math block and our sixty minute math block, and lunch and specialists and recess time we're down to 122 minutes a day we have left for social studies, science, health, nutrition, writing, arts. All the other things that are important for kids too.

The State Board of Education is fully aware of this dilemma, but it can't do anything about it. Pat Irish, with the board, says levying fines against schools for not meeting the state's 100 minute a week requirement for PE is out of the question. Irish says enforcing the law just isn't realistic.

Pat Irish: Right now we don't have a hammer so to speak, other than taking money away and that's the last thing we would want to do to a struggling school district.

Beginning in 2008, schools will have to test students on their knowledge of PE and Health. They'll be written exams, but the results won't carry any consequences. Larry Davis, the Board of Education's Executive Director says the subjects schools will continue to be focused on are the ones tested by the state's WASL exam.

Larry Davis: Math, reading and writing, they are treated differently under the accountability system because they are the accountability system. Unlike the other subject areas.

But inactive students could result in lower WASL scores. A report by the Washington State Health Department says overweight children tend to have lower math and reading scores than their fit classmates. Another study out of California shows a strong correlation between students who are in shape and those to do well on the state's test.

Jean Blaydes talks about this research wherever she goes. She's a former gym teacher from Texas. She travels the country telling other gym teachers how to incorporate academics into their PE classes. Things like learning the ABC's while skipping rope. She says learning and movement go hand in hand.

Jean Blaydes: The science tells us and the statistics tell us that about 85 percent of the kids that we teach, of school age kids, are kinesthetic learners predominately. Kinesthetic. Acting things out, using their body, using their senses. A kinesthetic child is the one that's sitting in the classroom, wiggling in their chair, tapping their pencil because they have to turn on their kinesthetic mode in order to see the teacher better or hear the teacher better.

Manitou Park Elementary in Tacoma, and many other schools, are trying to offer students opportunities to be active before and after school-for instance, linking up with a local karate teacher willing to volunteer some time. At Dearborn Park Elementary in Seattle, PE teacher Ed Adams lets the kids use the gym whenever they aren't in the classroom.

Ed Adams: The gym is open before school starts, at recess and after school … Hey Trey, she wants to see you do a "tuck."

Trey, who is in the first grade, does a cartwheel and then a back flip.

The Seattle school district is taking note of what's going on at Dearborn Park and all of the other PE programs throughout the city. A new law is forcing school districts across the state to evaluate their gym classes and what kids are eating at school. Districts have to come up with official PE and nutrition policies by August. A sample policy has been drafted as a guide. It includes 100 minutes a week of physical education … but once again, it's a recommendation districts are not obligated to follow.

Jennifer Wing, KPLU NEWS.