An alert FrontBurnervian points us to this survey, which says: “Based on a health and wellness self-assessment survey, 74 percent of [DISD] employees are at risk for high blood pressure, 74 percent at risk for obesity, 67 percent do not get enough exercise, and more than 48 percent have four or more risk factors” (see item No. 16). In short, the people who work for DISD are not a healthy bunch. That’s not good for the teachers (obviously). But it’s also not good for students (lost productivity due to teacher absenteeism as a result of illness, bad examples being set), and it’s not good for taxpayers (we’re paying for part of their healthcare).
I would think that an incentive program could easily be designed to make a huge impact on teacher health. Set a target BMI and then reward teachers for making progress toward that goal. Give them paid days off. Free lesson-planning periods. Hell, even cash. It would pay for itself in saved health-care costs. Even better, you can enlist the kids as a the support group, turn the thing into a class project of sorts. Get all of Mrs. Smith’s students invested in improving her health (and, by extension, the class’s health).
