WhyTheHeck

Congressional candidate Joe Malone, running as a Republican in the 10^th CD in Massachusetts, is guest-posting a great idea proposing what can be done with school gyms when not in use.  Why not subcontract them to health clubs to sell memberships for evenings and weekends?   The times when kids are not using the gyms are exactly the times when the majority of adults would want to:  early mornings, evenings and weekends.

This proposal would raise money for school districts and provide jobs and inexpensive access to fitness, but Joe’s big insight is that part of the arrangement with the health clubs is that the kids be allowed to use the gyms free during these hours and school vacations. 

This arrangement would give kids something to do just when their parents most want them to be doing something (especially during vacations, which are anything but for most parents), and would be a healthy alternative to watching TV or playing video games.  Also, sedentary behaviors lead to obesity, and many schools are in districts that don’t have many fitness options other than at the schools themselves.

Finally, the health clubs that are subcontracting the space are likely to want to upgrade the equipment in the gym too, in order to attract more members, which in turn makes the facilities more attractive to the kids and more of an asset to the school districts.

ThinkOOB normally does not endorse candidates (especially at 5:52 AM on a Sunday morning) but we are going to make an exception here and throw our considerable weight behind Joe Malone’s candidacy.  Great outside-the-box idea, Joe!

Tags: healthcare prevention, Joe Malone, local government spending, obesity prevention, school gyms

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 5:52 am by Al Lewis (alewis) and is filed under Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.