Should we eliminate high school sports for budget?

Forums: Sports, High School Sports, Budget Gaps
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A local high school's school committee has decided to eliminate sports to close a massive fiscal budget gap. According to the local newspaper just over 50% of students play on at least one sports team. And it is also all extracurricular activities.

So how important is this for high school students? Some feel it is as important or close to it as academics. Many use sports as a leg up to get into college or even for a scholorship. So how important is this? Is this a good way to save money?

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Type: Discussion • Score: 18 • Views: 8,229 • Replies: 104

@Linkat,

not in my opinion, what we should do is revert to intramural sports where any and all students are allowed/encouraged to actively participate in any and all sports. males and females.

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@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

A local high school's school committee has decided to eliminate sports to close a massive fiscal budget gap. According to the local newspaper just over 50% of students play on at least one sports team. And it is also all extracurricular activities.

So how important is this for high school students? Some feel it is as important or close to it as academics. Many use sports as a leg up to get into college or even for a scholorship. So how important is this? Is this a good way to save money?

When I was in high school, I deemed ball games a waste of time.
I did not join.

I was not sufficiently accurate for the rifle team.

David

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Budget decisions always involve choices... yet you haven't offered the alternative.

Is the choice between sports or music? Sports vs. drama? or Sports versus calculus. I would put music as more important than sports.

Of course the real choice here is between education and tax cuts (and we all know who loses that choice).

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I don't think the average kid gets nearly enough exercise. Closing down the sports programs gives them another excuse to sit around doing nothing.

Plus, aren't students who participate in sports less likely to drink and do drugs? Seems like I've read that somewhere.

I love dy's idea. Sports have gotten so expensive that many families are priced out of being able to participate.

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@ebrown p,

Oddly the city workers and teachers all got 9% pay raises.

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@ebrown p,

All extra activities beyond academics are to be cut. And there are always other alternatives. One local community (with the agreements of the teachers) cut some of the health benefits so the teachers agreed to pay more of their health benefits. You could cut raises or lower benefits or cut out transportation to schools or ask parents to contribute to sports or other activities. Ask for volunteers to head these programs rather than say pay a coach.

For my child's city sports - they held a raffle to raise money to pay for their jackets. The parents paid a portion for the refs pay, the gym rental and the difference the children raised "canning".

1 Reply

@boomerang,

Also, I have heard cutting out these extra activities results in property values going down. Quality school districts tend to haver higher home values for a reason. Not just the benefit if you have a child attending these schools, but like boomerang mentioned - less kids just hanging around and getting into trouble.

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@Linkat,

If something needed to be cut-- sports would be near the top of my list.

Cutting the benefits of teachers, the people who are the front line of eduction (the whole reason for school), is asinine.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Sports? Bah..

It's about time we eliminate that waste of time. Shouldn't kids be doing some kind of useful exercise at recess. Make them pull weeds in the corn field or bale some hay. The least they can do is walk uphill to and from school.

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@ebrown p,

Well if they are getting pay raises that past few years of 9% when others due to the economy are getting zippo and losing jobs to me that is different. Also, in the case of this nearby community, the teachers voted to decrease their benefits rather than forgo other cuts including extra activities.

I agree that academics is most important - but these extra activities are also important to make a well rounded student. Sports include team as well as intramural (I was involved in intramural myself as I wasn't so competitive).

And like I said there are other alternatives - other school systems in the area have used other alternatives including those I listed.

How come the surrounding communities have been able to make other consessions and still have some extras - cutting all is a bit extreme and will lower the public school ratings.

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@parados,

High school does not have recess - recess is in elementary school.

And you may be responding in jest - but at my kids' school - they do alternate at class level to clean the school yard!

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@Linkat,

I think that schools should provide extracurriculars like sports, but they could do away with football. Football is extremely expensive in terms of equipment risk to students. Basketball, soccer, lacross, tennis, track ... once the facilities are in place, these are very inexpensive sports and the facilities have multiple uses. My son's high school swim team uses the nearby local Y pool as their home base. I think these programs provide a lot of bang for the buck and should stay. Some football programs actually make money, so it might make sense to keep that as well.

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@parados,

parados wrote:

The least they can do is walk uphill to and from school.

Hell yes! That's what we did in my day, and the snow was this deep.

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@Linkat,

Oftentimes these kinds of cuts are announced and then a big push to hold a referendum vote to increase taxes follows. The referendum would pass here - that's why my property taxes are five digits, other places they would probably fail. It really comes down to how much the tax base is willing to support. As costs go up voters have to agree to increase the tax burden or cuts have to be made. Did your school district hold a referendum vote this year on increasing taxes to support the schools before announcing these cutbacks?

1 Reply

@engineer,

engineer wrote:

I think that schools should provide extracurriculars like sports, but they could do away with football. Football is extremely expensive in terms of equipment risk to students. Basketball, soccer, lacross, tennis, track ... once the facilities are in place, these are very inexpensive sports and the facilities have multiple uses. My son's high school swim team uses the nearby local Y pool as their home base. I think these programs provide a lot of bang for the buck and should stay. Some football programs actually make money, so it might make sense to keep that as well.

U left out the RIFLE Team.

David

1 Reply

Quote:

parados wrote:

The least they can do is walk uphill to and from school.

Hell yes! That's what we did in my day, and the snow was this deep.

barefoot, through packs of hungry wolves

1 Reply

@MontereyJack,

MontereyJack wrote:

Quote:
parados wrote:

The least they can do is walk uphill to and from school.

Hell yes! That's what we did in my day, and the snow was this deep.

barefoot, through packs of hungry wolves

I coud rent them submachineguns, for lupine safety.

some nice MP5s

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

david, not a very interesting post about school and exercise.

1 Reply

@dyslexia,

dyslexia wrote:

david, not a very interesting post about school and exercise.

It was about the exercise of getting to the school, thru the wolves.

0 Replies

Should we eliminate high school sports for budget?

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