Health and Fitness

A healthy Texas is an essential component of a strong and competitive state. From promoting the use of technology to improve the quality of care and supporting life-saving research initiatives, to providing students with a critical foundation for a healthy lifestyle, I remain committed to improving the health and fitness of Texans.

Cancer Prevention and Research

In 2007, voters overwhelming approved Proposition 15 allowing the state to establish the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) and bonding authority for a 10-year, $3 billion cancer initiative. In line with Texas voters, I recommend fully funding cancer prevention activities and new research grant funding for 2010-11 so that grants for cancer research and prevention programs can be awarded. I recommend transferring the Texas Cancer Registry to CPRIT from the Texas Department of State Health Services to ensure statistical cancer data measures the impact of prevention and research activities.

I recommend $53 million in funding for debt service on the cancer research bonds, plus an appropriation for the Institutes’s operations for the 2010-11 biennium.

Student Health and Fitness

To combat the trends in declining health and fitness among Texas children, the 80th Texas Legislature increased the physical activity requirement for middle school students and required an annual Fitnessgram assessment for grades 3-12. The results of the state’s first Fitnessgram confirmed concerns that Texas students score poorly when it comes to physical fitness, particularly as students get older. To combat students’ declining health and fitness trends, I recommend an incentives-based pilot program targeted to 90,000 middle school and high school students in schools with the lowest Fitnessgram performance.

I recommend $10 million for an incentives-based health and fitness pilot program for middle and high school students for the 2010-11 biennium.