Fat kids. Your problem or the school's?

No question. Your kid, your problem. You feed them. You fatten them. Parents are the problem.

The Georgia Senate on Friday passed legislation to require elementary schools to weigh children twice a year and to track body mass index, the measure of whether somebody's fat. Aggregate information, not results for individual students, would be posted on a state education Web site. The school's not required to notify parents of their child's weight, though it would be made available to them upon request.

These notions are troubling —- that schools should be the place where government intervenes in childhood obesity and, furthermore, that they should be identified publicly with a condition almost entirely beyond their control. Sure the kids eat a meal at school. And, yes, they may have access to soft drink machines and possibly snacks as well. But schools are not primarily responsible for children's caloric intake. It's not their job description.

This particular bill, SB 506 by state Sen. Joe Carter (R-Tifton), is modest enough in its reach. Local school systems test, and the state appoints a coordinator to gather and post school data and to "coordinate physical education and fitness activities and requirements." Systems that don't submit data or don't meet a state minimum in physical education instruction will be declared by the state school board to be an "unhealthy school zone." The bill passed the Senate 37-13 and goes now to the House.

We have gone in one lifetime from a nation fighting hunger to one fighting gluttony. Obesity is no doubt a real concern. The problem here is that yet another responsibility of the family is being transferred to public education. No daddy in a child's life? Task the schools to provide role models and to teach values. Can't handle anger? Task the schools to teach behavior management. No self-esteem? Schools. Don't know which fork to use? Schools. No discipline in what goes on the fork? Schools. Reading, writing and math? Sure, if you can squeeze it in.

Schools have become the absent fathers and the never-formed families.

If one assumes that children reach school age completely uncivilized, never exposed to discipline or boundaries and unable to resist all temptation —- food, sex, aggression, media distractions —- then the logical place to begin the civilizing process is where the children first intersect government. For decades now, the burden of socializing children and teaching them values has fallen to schools. It's little wonder that they struggle so mightily with their basic mission.

The sad reality for those who believe in limited government is that this attempt to introduce schools to their food-police role is just the beginning.

Once the weight-checkers establish that a kid's fat, or that lots of them are, there has to be a second step, and a third, all of which necessitate a more activist role for the calorie police.

First will come the movement to rid the schools of soft drink machines —- something already under way across the nation —- and to cut empty calories from school menus. Since the kids will still be fat, more aggressive school-based efforts will be required, with more nutritionists, diet managers, medical personnel and physical education counselors needed to police the gap between a child's fork and his stomach. And of course parents or parent will need educating, too.

When these efforts fail because the problem is at home, attention will turn to manufacturers who make the products that, when consumed to excess, cause obesity —- something we've already seen, too.

Senate Bill 506 is well-intentioned. But can't we cut the schools a break? I want my schools to educate children so that they can get a job and support themselves and their families. I don't want them weighing children —- or being branded as an "unhealthy zone" if the children's mommas and daddies feed them a dinner of potatoes, macaroni and cheese and Girl Scout cookies.

> Jim Wooten is the associate editorial page editor. His column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays.

jwooten@ajc.com