8A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2006
Glass wall
Michelle Grittmann/Kansan
Michelle Lenihan, Overland Park senior discusses the "Persian Wall" art display by Dale Chihuly with classmate Kristina Carlson, Gardner senior., Carlson will lead an art tour today for class at the Spencer Art Museum. Lenihan and Carlson, both art education students, were working on final projects for their visual arts education course in technical collogium.
STATE
Legislators continue talks on school finance
BY JOHN MILBURN ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Finding a compromise plan that will satisfy a Kansas Supreme Court mandate to increase spending on schools has fallen to three senators and three House members.
TOPEKA - Legislators started negotiations Wednesday on school finance issues, after the House rejected a three-year, $532.7 million plan assembled a dav earlier.
Negotiators reviewed the contents of a plan the Senate passed last week and one the House passed in March. No action was taken and more talks still were possible Thursday morning.
"We will get something eventually" Maws said.
"We have a Chevy and a Cadillac. I'm not going to say which is which," said Rep. Kathe Decker, (R-Clay Center), lead House negotiator.
The Senate approved a plan last week to phase in a $541
The House plan, defeated 69-55, had the backing of Speaker Doug Mays, (R-Topeka), and other GOP leaders. He said there will be no more attempts to draft a new House plan to take into negotiations with senators.
million increase in spending on public schools over three years. In March, a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans forced a three-year, $633 million plan through the House.
Mays and Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, (R-Independence), said negotiations could go quickly but were likely to get hung up over policy provisions sought by House members to make schools more accountable and to fulfill some members' desire to give local districts greater authority to increase property taxes.
Mays and other GOP leaders could have initiated talks last week with the Senate over the final version of school finance legislation. But they wanted to have another debate, hoping to narrow the scope of the discussions — and ultimately the size of any final plan.
NATION
Both chambers would rely on existing state revenues to fund their proposals, though budget projections show the third year could cause the state to exhaust all available revenues and be faced with a deficit, something prohibited by state law. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the state wasn't spending enough on its public schools or distributing the dollars fairly.
Schools pull non-diet sodas, downsize drinks
BY KAREN MATTHEWS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEW YORK - Children will soon have to wait until school's out to pop the top on sugary soft drinks blamed for much of the rise in childhood obesity.
Non-diet sodas will be yanked from schools, and other drinks will be downsized under a deal announced Wednesday by former President Bill Clinton and the nation's largest beverage distributors.
Talesha Gardner, then 17, looks at the sodas for sale at Horlick High School in this Jan. 5, 2004, photo in Recine, Wis. In a deal announced Wednesday by the William J. Clinton Foundation, the nation's largest beverage distributors agreed to stop selling non-diet sodas to most public schools, where obesity has become a concern.
"This is a truly bold step forward in the struggle to help 35 million young people lead healthier lives," said Clinton, whose foundation has targeted obesity in children for the past year. "This one policy can add years and years and years to the lives of a very large number of young people."
The agreement, to be phased in over the next three years, was brokered by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a collaboration between the William
Most elementary schools are already soda-free. But under the new deal, beverage companies agreed to sell only water, unsweetened juice and low-fat and non-fat milk to elementary and middle schools. Diet sodas and sports drinks will remain in high schools.
"This is a truly bold step forward in the struggle to help 35 million young people lead healthier lives."
Gregory Shaver/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bill Clinton
Former President
J. Clinton Presidential Foundation and the American Heart Association.
It involves industry leaders Cadbury Schwepes PLC, Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. as well as the American Beverage Association, which together control 87 percent of the public and private school drink market. Officials said they hoped the other 13 percent would follow suit.
Ann Cooper, an advocate for healthy school lunches who directs the food program for public schools in Berkeley, Calif., called the deal a good first step.
"Any agreement that limits high-fructose corn syrup and sugar and non-nutrient foods that are served in schools is good, but I don't think it goes far enough," she said, citing the calories in sports drinks and some flavored milks.
The move follows a mounting wave of regulation by school boards and legislators alarmed by the health problems that can follow childhood obesity. Soda has been a particular target because of its high calories and popularity among children.
Anne Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association, said she welcomed it. "We're pleased that the parties have decided that there is no need for litigation, because litigation is a terrible waste of time and money," she said.
John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, which compiles extensive data on the beverage industry, said the deal would have no impact on the $63 billion beverage industry's bottom line.
"The sale of sugar-carbonated sodas in schools is a tiny, tiny part of their overall volume," said Sicher. "Financially, on the big companies, it will have virtually no impact."
He applauded the move for its impact "in terms of responsibility and accountability to the consumer."
Under the agreement, high schools will still be able sell low-calorie drinks with fewer than 10 calories a serving, as well as up to 12-ounce servings
of juice, sports drinks and lowfat and nonfat milk.
The serving sizes for juice and milk will shrink to 10 ounces for middle school students and 8 ounces for elementary school students. Diet sodas and sports drinks won't be sold in middle and elementary schools, and full-sugar soda and whole milk will no longer be offered to any schools.
School sales of sports drinks, diet sodas and bottled water have been on the rise in recent
years, while sugary sodas bought by students have been falling, according to a recent ABA report. But regular soda, averaging 150 calories a can, is still the most popular drink, accounting for 45 percent of drinks sold in schools in 2005, according to the report.
The new rules will apply to beverages sold on school grounds during the regular school day and at after-school activities such as band and choir practice.
Beverage industry officials who joined Clinton at a news conference in his Manhattan office said the agreement was not an admission that their products are unhealthy.
"This is about where we sell our products, not about the products themselves," said Dawn Hudson, CEO of PepsiCo for North America. "We believe that all our products have a place in a well-balanced diet and proper, active lifestyle."
r