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Obesity has become an epidemic in the United States, and the incidences of diseases related directly to weight continue to rise. To help combat this problem, English chef Jamie Oliver has created his own form of "reality television," heading into the lunchrooms of public schools across the country in an attempt to transform the way Americans look at and eat foods from a young age. Oliver's program, "Food Revolution," spent its first season inside schools in West Virginia, transforming school lunches and breakfasts into healthier fare. During the second season, Oliver planned to bring his healthy food program to schools in Los Angeles – but sometimes, things don't go quite the way we plan.

The Conflict

Jamie Oliver had planned to head into the school cafeterias in Los Angeles in a similar fashion to the way he moved into West Virginia schools – getting a full assessment of the current condition of lunches and breakfasts served through the school system. However, Los Angeles schools were not as willing to comply with Oliver's requests, and his cameras were denied access completely to any Los Angeles school cafeterias. Administrators for the schools said on a blog that previous negative experience with reality TV shows left them unwilling to bring any more drama to the Los Angeles school stage.

"This is not a boutique cafe operation," outgoing Los Angeles Unified

Ever since the Internet has come into the public school classroom, filters have been used to keep inappropriate and obscene information and pictures away from students. However, the ACLU has recently been alerted to the fact that pornography isn't the only thing not making it into public school classrooms today. Many schools across the country are using their filtering tools to weed out information for LGBT students – even when the websites in question do not fall into the pornographic or inappropriate category. What's worse is that many of these same schools allow anti-gay websites to be accessed on campus.

What's In and What's Out

The problem came to the attention of the ACLU a few years ago when a high school student in Tennessee was searching for information about scholarships for gay and lesbian students. The student was unable to access any of the websites that provided such information, according to a report on . However, the student did discover websites advocating that gay and lesbian behavior can be reformed or overcome. The student notified the ACLU about the issue, and the ACLU sued the school and several others in Tennessee with similar policies.

On their website, the asserts, "Blocking all LGBT content violates students' First Amendment rights to free speech. They also violate the Equal Access Act, which requires equal access to school resources for all extracurricular clubs, including gay-straight alliances and LGBT support groups." The

Recess has traditionally been a part of the school day in public elementary schools, offering students the opportunity to breathe in fresh air, work off energy, and socialize with friends outside the confines of the classroom. However, in the interest of providing additional instruction during the school day, many schools have moved away from recess in favor of more classroom time. In some areas, recess has been on hiatus for years, but parents and educators are joining together in a movement to resuscitate recess after finding numerous benefits this time of free play provides. This article will take a look at some of the schools that have done away with the popular playtime and why many are bringing the ritual back to their playgrounds.

This video discusses eliminating a recess break.

The Benefits of Recess

While recess may not seem to have many benefits to daily studies on the surface, research into the matter seems to prove otherwise. On their website, the cites numerous benefits of recess, which impact the students' physical, emotional, cognitive, and social health and wellbeing. Some of the physical benefits of recess include:

• More time spent in active play
• Proper growth and development from physical activity
• Helps children maintain a healthy weight, reducing the risk of some diseases later in life
• Improves bone mass and density, lowering the risk of fractures throughout life

There are also cognitive and

Amidst schools struggling under tight budgets and fewer resources, a new report by the NAACP provides startling information about where state money is allocated. While schools are forced to find more ways to pinch their pennies, the cost of incarceration around the country is rising. The most disturbing fact surrounding this reality is where the money is going: to cities and neighborhoods where the quality of education is at an all-time low. It turns out that the more we spend on incarcerating individuals, the less we have to spend on public education. By the same token, the fewer that graduate from high school, the more dropouts that end up incarcerated. This vicious circle doesn't seem to have an end, but several laws and policymakers hope to change that reality with the release of this report.

Misplaced Priorities

The NAACP's report is titled Misplaced Priorities: A New Report from NAACP. This organization tracked a slow but steady shift away from public education spending and into the criminal justice system. While funding for higher education between 1987 and 2007 grew by just 21 percent, corrections funding grew by 127 percent!

The researchers who conducted this survey found a distinct link between over-incarceration and the destabilization of communities, according to the . It also found that this connection usually has the most significant impact on vulnerable and minority populations. Six cities were studied for the report, and each showed similarly troubling results.

Surprising Statistics