Starting a year from now, most Oregon schools should be requiring far more time in physical education classes than they do now. Yet there’s pushback from school districts across the state, and with good reason.

Lawmakers in 2007 approved a measure requiring the equivalent of 30 minutes a day, five days a week, of physical education in grades K-5. Students in grade 6-8 are expected to have the equivalent of 45 minutes of P.E., five days a week.

From a health standpoint, the standards make perfect sense. There’s all sorts of research showing active kids are healthier and better learners than their more sedentary counterparts. Organizations including the American Heart Association, Association of State Boards of Education, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend the times required in Oregon’s new standard and say that at least half that time should be spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity.

All of which sounds good, though as school officials are quick to point out, going from “sounds good” to reality isn’t all that easy.

In Bend, for example, many of the district’s schools put large spaces to dual use, meaning lunch and P.E. must share the only area large enough for indoor physical activity. That’s not a problem always, but in the middle of winter, it can be.

Then there’s finding the time to wedge P.E. into an already crowded day. Bend-La Pine Schools offer three, 15-minute recess periods for elementary students and two periods for middle schoolers. Those times cannot be turned into P.E. classes. Nor, says the district’s Lora Nordquist, can the school day expand to include time for P.E. — it’s simply too expensive, among other things.

That leaves this district, and many others around the state, with a choice: They can meet the new standard next year, as required, although doing so means reducing educational offerings elsewhere. Should history classes be cut short? Or math? Children also need unstructured play. Perhaps the requirements should be reduced.

Or, they can ask the Legislature to reconsider, and it should agree to do so. There’s no doubt P.E. is good for kids of all ages, but districts should be allowed to do what they can, as Bend-La Pine plans to do, without spending extra money or shortchanging children’s academic education.