Former Governor Michael Huckabee (R-AR), as many people know, lost a
lot of weight (about 100 pounds). This certainly was quite an
accomplishment. I agree with him that preventive care often is
overlooked and a focus in that direction would be helpful.
However, his concern about childhood obesity is extreme. He pushed a bill in Arkansas that requires “schools in the state to measure and track students BMI [Body Mass Index] and inform parents of the results.”
When I heard about this, I couldn’t believe my ears. As if schools don’t have enough to do, they have to track students’ BMI.
It presumes that parents are incapable of knowing when their kids have
a weight issue and by tracking the BMI, it sets up a system so that, if
the state chooses, it could start punishing parents, or students.
It also is an incredible invasion of a student’s privacy–school
administrators have no business knowing the BMI history of a student.
Apparently,
the BMI for kids is much better than for adults–for adults, the BMI
doesn’t consider gender or body fat. However, it still is a
simplistic “one size fits all system” that may have little relevance to
a specific child.
Huckabee thinks he and the government are
better-suited than parents to deal with kids’ weight issues. A
lot of time policies such as this that are “for our best interests” are
described as nanny-state policies. I think this is too
kind. The reality is these policies are based on the arrogance of
policymakers and often have less to do with our best interests than the
best interests of those pushing the policies. In this instance,
it probably is just based on arrogance.
