Too often lawmakers poke their noses where it doesn't belong. This is the problem with Georgia Senate Bill 506. The nanny-state measure orders schools to check every child's body-mass twice a year.

Not that there's anything wrong with keeping track of kids' weights. Indeed, obesity in children is a serious and growing problem. This is why the American Academy of Pediatrics rightly recommends that all children have their body mass index -- the ratio of weight to height -- checked at least once a year.

But there are reasonable ways and not-so-reasonable ways to deal with this issue. Having the state legislature mandate a weight check program is not reasonable, because the legislature has no business micromanaging how schools should deal with pupils.

There should be a limit to how far the government's arm can reach. There's nothing wrong with a resolution encouraging schools to check body weight, but it is wrong to order them to. That should be up to individual schools or school districts to decide -- with input from parents and other interested community groups.

For instance, some parents may not want their children to participate, because it could lead to the heavier kids being stigmatized or made objects of ridicule by their peers.

Most important, keeping children's weight under control should be a primary responsibility of parents, not schools. Schools can offer good advice, serve healthy lunches and provide good exercise programs for youngsters, but their No. 1 task should be to teach, which is something many of them are not doing as well as they should.

When schools take over responsibilities that parents should be doing, it not only hampers the education mission, but it also encourages mom and dad to abdicate more of their parental responsibilities.

Such an unintended consequence is not something lawmakers should be mandating. S.B 506 passed the Senate and has been sent to the House. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it dies there. We won't reduce the weight of our children by increasing the heavy-handed weight of government.