AUGUSTA – Public schools long have profited by catering to students’ taste for soft drinks, candy bars and other high-calorie, low-nutrient snacks, using proceeds from the sale of such sugary treats to support extracurricular programs.

But under the provisions of a bill currently before the Legislature, schools would be forced to practice what they preach in health class, limiting the snacks and drinks offered in vending machines to choices more in keeping with the principles of good nutrition.

The proposal, one of five anti-obesity measures proposed by Rep. Sean Faircloth, D-Bangor, has strong support from health professionals and other groups but is opposed by the soft-drink industry, which turns a tidy profit from school machines while developing brand loyalty in young consumers.

Soft-drink manufacturers and distributors routinely negotiate agreements with cash-strapped schools, providing them a share of vending machine proceeds and other incentives like sports scoreboards. Schools use their share of revenues to fund such extras as field trips, after-school club activities and athletic uniforms and equipment.

Maine law restricts the on-campus sale of sugary, low-nutrient snacks to before- and after-school hours. Items sold during lunch must comply with the token standards of the state’s “5 percent rule” – offering at least 5 percent of the recommended daily allowance of at least one key nutrient per 100 calories.

With obesity topping the list of public health issues besetting Mainers, Faircloth says it’s time for schools to get their story straight. Tax-funded public programs should be promoting good health across the board, he said, not sending one message in health class and another in the form of the foods offered to students.

Faircloth wants to see the state mandate only 100 percent juice drinks and water instead of sodas and other non-nutritive drinks in school vending machines. Under the provisions of the bill, candy bars and other sweets also would be replaced with healthier snacks.

Schools already are free to negotiate with vendors, and a handful have chosen to eliminate these items from their machines. Calais High School, for example, went soda-free last fall.

Heather Erickson, coordinator of the local community wellness program, said she first brought the suggestion to the school board. With the board’s approval, she approached the student council, which reaps the proceeds from the machines.

Initially the students balked at the idea, but they came around when she pointed out that with healthier offerings, vending machines could be left on during the school day.

Now, she says, sales are up, and the student council is getting more money than it was before. “The kids are fine with the change,” Erickson said. The last time she met with them, “there were no snide remarks; they didn’t jump me or tie me up or anything.”

Calais High’s student council adviser, Rick Chaffey, said vending machines have been in the school for 12 or 13 years. Students have used the proceeds – averaging about $60 a week during the school year – to purchase a large marble outdoor sign, trophy cases, weight-training equipment and other niceties that otherwise would be out of reach for the no-frills school.

Additionally, he said, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi have donated large electronic scoreboards advertising the brands.

Faircloth’s bill is actively opposed by the Maine Soft Drink Association. Spokesman Dennis Bailey said a new law is unnecessary and the proposal is based on misinformation.

Distributors already cooperate with school systems to arrive at acceptable product lines, timers to control hours of access and other specifics, he said.

Bailey quoted industry studies showing bottled water outsells sodas in school machines by a 2-to-1 ratio, and he credited responsive marketing with the shift.

Demonizing soft drinks and other low-nutrient snacks doesn’t get to the heart of the problem, he said. The real culprit is physical inactivity, he added.

A recent state Bureau of Health TV ad campaign aimed at reducing soft-drink consumption in young people was withdrawn after the industry alleged there were factual errors. Bailey argues the tax money spent on the ads would be better spent on promoting physical exercise for schoolchildren.

“If you really want to do something about obesity, go after exercise,” he said.

The Maine Principals’ Association hasn’t taken an official position on the issue, but assistant executive director Jeff Sturgis said the organization has several concerns.

For one thing, nonstudent groups use school vending machines, including school faculty and staff, as well as evening adult education classes and other community members. Limiting diet choices for those groups might or might not be a good idea, Sturgis said, but it certainly would provoke reaction.

Additionally, some schools in Maine – mostly in urban and suburban areas – are well into four- or five-year contracts with distributors. Although those agreements would be honored under the terms of Faircloth’s bill, the principals’ association sees financial inequity as a possibility.

Children unable to get the drinks and snacks they want from machines at school will just bring them in their backpacks – or worse, “they’ll walk down to the corner store and smoke a cigarette on the way,” Sturgis said.

The MPA “can live with it either way,” he said, but perhaps leaving the decision to local communities would be best.

Education committee co-chair Rep. Glen Cummings , D-Portland, said arguments heard before the committee were persuasive. “I was shocked by the level of obesity and the correlation with diabetes … [Bill proponents] did a fabulous job of outlining how extensive this problem is,” he said.

But, he said, opponents also made a strong case for local control of the issue and for sending a broader health message than simply limiting what school vending machines offer. In tight budget times, schools’ ability to negotiate deals with vendors can be “vital” to their extracurricular programs, he added.

Faircloth says he isn’t looking to pull the vending machine plug in schools.

“The specific intent of this bill is to keep the vendors in the schools” with a mandated shift to healthier offerings, he said.

Faircloth’s five-bill “obesity package” answers critics’ call to tackle the issue at a number of levels. In addition to the vending machine bill, he’s looking to mandate high-visibility nutritional labeling for chain restaurants with 20 or more locations in Maine. He also wants the state to study ways to promote health in schools, and to fund and implement community transportation alternatives that encourage Mainers to walk, bike, skate or otherwise get where they need to go under their own power.

Should government stay out of the debate and let people make their own choices? By promoting cheap access to fossil fuels, by deregulating advertising to children and by allowing fast-food chains to obscure basic nutritional information, Faircloth says, the government already is playing a part – a detrimental one – in the health of Maine’s children.

“Now we need the government to play an important role in making the situation better,” he said.