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By Emma Brown
The Washington Post
October 25, 2009
A new report says that $2 billion in cuts to school-based sports and physical education programs are contributing to a range of problems afflicting the nation's youth, including obesity, violence and academic failure.
The report by Up2Us, a New York City-based coalition of groups lobbying to save such programs, was released last week as more than 150 researchers, coaches and leaders of nonprofit groups gathered in Washington for a conference on the fate of youth sports in an age of budget cuts.
"Youth sports is in serious decline in this country," said Brian Greenwood, co-author of the study and an assistant professor at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. "We can't afford that potential negative impact. If a kid doesn't have somewhere to go, something to do to occupy their time, unfortunately what they do more often than not is they end up in trouble."
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