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Teachers, university and CTE leaders urge board to keep or increase PE and CTE graduation requirements
Summary
More than a dozen public commenters asked the board not to reduce high-school physical-education credits and to retain a required CTE credit, citing student mental health, equity and workforce outcomes. Speakers included PE teachers, SHAPE Washington leaders, university representatives and CTE directors.
During the board's public comment period, a broad coalition of PE teachers, school district staff, university faculty and CTE leaders urged the State Board of Education to maintain or strengthen high-school physical education and to preserve a required career and technical education credit.
Speakers described post-pandemic declines in students' physical fitness and rising mental-health needs as arguments to preserve at least the current 1.5 credits of PE and 0.5 health credits, or to consider higher requirements. Jessie Purcell, who identified themselves as Garfield High School's only full-time PE teacher, told the board that students are arriving to high school less active and less confident in movement and that PE classrooms now deliberately teach lifelong movement skills and social-emotional learning. "At a time where students face mental-health and physical-inactivity challenges, reducing access to physical education would move us in the wrong direction," Purcell said.
Dr. Julie McCleary, a professor of education at the University of Washington, pointed to Washington Healthy Youth Survey figures in testimony about daily activity rates among 10th and 12th graders and called reducing PE "counterintuitive and harmful." SHAPE Washington representatives and local district PE leads echoed those points: they said PE classrooms are inclusive settings that teach resilience, social skills and health literacy and cautioned against options that would increase seat-time while reducing movement time.
CTE advocates also testified. Paul Randall, director of Tri-Tech Skill Center and president of the Washington State Skill Center Association, urged the board to retain a required 1.0 CTE credit rather than subsuming it into a personalized pathway, citing research linking CTE to higher graduation and postsecondary workforce outcomes.
Several commenters raised equity concerns: they said options that assume students can access private fitness offerings or extracurricular sports would advantage affluent students. Speakers urged the board to consider implementation support for districts and to preserve guaranteed access to high-quality PE and CTE instruction.
Board response: Members listened but did not take immediate action in the meeting. Multiple public commenters asked the board to reconsider recent votes they described as rushed; at least one commenter said a vote on PE/health graduation requirements had occurred the prior day. The transcript records requests for reconsideration and strong appeals to preserve PE and CTE, but it does not record a new board vote on those specific graduation-credit changes during this session.
Next steps: The board and staff noted further public comment channels (written submissions) and that graduation-requirement rulemaking and an August resolution are on the calendar for continued consideration.
