Who needs a mayoral takeover?

All we need for improved academic performance are exercise balls!

From the Los Angeles Times:

The inflatable balls are commonly used in Pilates, yoga and exercise classes. Some teachers say they belong in school classrooms too because they sharpen students' attention and improve their posture.

This year, Yehl checked the Internet for ways to help her restless pupils sit still. She stumbled on a story about exercise balls improving concentration. So she replaced her classroom's chairs with bouncy 21-inch-high balls in colors students chose....

Lisa Witt, whose Wisconsin company WittFitt sells exercise ball chairs for classroom use, reports a sharp increase in customers, from one school in 2004 to more than 300 across the country and abroad.

"Some people initially think, 'Are you crazy?' " says Witt, a former elementary school teacher in Colorado. But aside from mental and physical benefits, she says, "it's just plain fun."...

The tiny movements kids make to stay balanced stimulate their brains and help them focus, says Dr. John Ratey, a Harvard University professor and author of "Driven to Distraction" and "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain." Children with attention disorders, he says, have "a sleepy cortex," and exercise combats that mental disengagement."

Just by using their core muscles more, they're flipping [their cortex] on" and increasing their mental activity, Ratey says. "The cerebellum part of their brain is really working to adjust, every millisecond."