| budget cuts |
| ||
|
Years of mismanagement coupled with the economic downturn may be the beginning of the end for high school sports as we have known them. Pay to play, i.e., club model appears in the future for our nation's high schools: http://athleticbusiness.com/articles/lexisnexis.aspx?lnarticleid=1380260730&lntopicid=136030023 |
| Lover of life |
| ||
|
I think its high time we eliminated sports from schools. Let those who play raise the money to play. The whole public school system needs to be rethought . |
| The Stache |
| ||
|
HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!! That is Jacksonville. My hometown! Damn, this is awful. |
| This Justice |
| ||
|
Public schools need to cut sports if they can't pay for it. Education comes first, then sports. |
| luv2run |
| ||
|
I am not opposed to this idea (club v school based). Maybe they will find this model works better. |
| something to consider |
| ||
I would love to agree with you, but sports is just about the only area in public education that we're allowed to challenge anyone any longer. Entitlement and catering to the least common denominator have run rampant elsewhere in public education. It takes a mighty strong kid to get through 13 years of this with any ambition intact. So, yeah, go ahead and throw out sports, too. It doesn't belong. It doesn't belong because you have to deal with adversity in sports. You have to deal with losing. You have to deal with working your tail off to keep someone else from taking your place. You have to work toward building something called team and sharing together in hard work. The places where these things exist in public education any longer are increasingly rare. |
| watchout |
| ||
Schools need to cut excess administrators if they can't pay for it. You're right in that education should come first. But funding problems in schools are mostly due to three factors: 1. Communities not approving levies which makes it worse on their kids and community 2. School districts having too much management 3. Schools not doing enough fundraising for their extracurricular programs (including but not limited to sports). Scholastic sports does a hell of a lot for kids. It's not just about playing football/basketball/baseball games and tennis/track/cross country matches and meets. It's more about things like social engineering (character building, healthy exercise, etc.) that frankly most kids don't seem to find elsewhere, whether due to poor parenting or a lack of community involvement. It also means opportunities to find success and be proud of their accomplishments, as well as opportunities to earn collegiate scholarships or improve their chances of getting into colleges with more substantial extra-curricular resumes. |
| Injustice |
| ||
How about physical education? |
| STEM |
| ||
|
That's a step in the right direction. Schools should also cut all theater, arts, music, etc. All of the money should be dumped into the STEM disciplines. Duval Co. is on the right track, but they could go (and should) go further. |
| budget cuts |
| ||
Speaking of, I showed up at my son's high school track team parent meeting, and they had 9 coaches. All they did was hit us up for money the whole meeting, and then tell us they might not be able to attend state on their budget unless a fundraiser ensues. Let me repeat that, 9 coaches for high school track. We had 1 coach when I was in school from 1980-83. I won and medalled at indoor and outdoor state, so did other guys and girls in the program. Our coach was an amazing math teacher, indor and outdoor track coach, cross country coach, meet director, and multi-tasking genius. He also took kids into our training from other high schools for indoor, because not all schools in the county offered indoor. 1 coach, state titles every year. And my kid's school can't figure out how to pay for state while 9 freaking coaches are scratching their asses all Spring. |
| lmb |
| ||
|
First of all, many high school coaches do not get paid. I worked for years as an assisstant without a salary-it is true of many schools in many sports. In the district where I coached, many of the kids who benefitted most from sports would not be able to afford to play. Not all kids are good enough or rich enough to do club sports-without HS sports participation would be limited to the rich and the very talented. Sports, and other extracurricular activities, are one of the best tools used to keep marginal students motivated to graduate. |
| ttttttt |
| ||
|
A school referendum does not get passed if it is the high pay and benefits of administrators or feel-good social pet projects on the chopping block but if it is sports and elementary reading teachers it is a different story. It is the oldest superintendent trick in the book. Cut where it hurts the kids and the community will cough up the money. But it is all about education and the children right? |
| chico 1 |
| ||
|
Here's another district going down, Chico USD: http://athleticbusiness.com/articles/lexisnexis.aspx?lnarticleid=1371680581&lntopicid=136030023 |
| Precious Roy |
| ||
|
I would not mind seeing the uber costly sports like footbal get the cut. Football send the wrong message to high school kids. It puts athletes on a pedestal and sets up a social pecking order in schools that is generally not in the students' best interest. On the other hand, if sports all go to after school clubs, then there would be no controls over the practice time. Kids would drop out of school to play on the local elite teams in order to get a shot at playing pro (college sports would inevitably decline right along side high school). The hard truth is that high school athletics exist to support college athletics. College athletics are a major source of funding for academic programs (football at UT Austin funds 1/3 of the academic programs). So, if you cut out HS football, you may also end up cutting college academics. |
| dd |
| ||
|
Fren Deford made the case for doing away with football to cut costs recently: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/frank_deford/03/17/eliminate.football.preps/index.html His main points: It sucks up money, encourages a sport we know to be harmful to long-term health, only one gender plays it. I'd frankly be fine with it. But I also think that the football/baseball/basketball/hockey programs at D1 colleges should just be made into official minor leagues, eliminating the charade of the student-athlete. Those that have the brains for college can still attend college in the off-season, the rest can stop wasting their time and the colleges resources. |
| trirunner11 |
| ||
Speaking of, I showed up at my son's high school track team parent meeting, and they had 9 coaches. All they did was hit us up for money the whole meeting, and then tell us they might not be able to attend state on their budget unless a fundraiser ensues. Let me repeat that, 9 coaches for high school track. We had 1 coach when I was in school from 1980-83. I won and medalled at indoor and outdoor state, so did other guys and girls in the program. Our coach was an amazing math teacher, indor and outdoor track coach, cross country coach, meet director, and multi-tasking genius. He also took kids into our training from other high schools for indoor, because not all schools in the county offered indoor. 1 coach, state titles every year. And my kid's school can't figure out how to pay for state while 9 freaking coaches are scratching their asses all Spring.[/quote] I'm the head coach of a very good high school track team for my state (top five almost every year in xc, indoor, and outdoor. We have 11 coaches for outdoor track. I am the head but I do not accept any money for the position. The money that would have went to pay me goes to pay two assistant coaches. The school pays for 1 more assistant out of their pockets. That means eight coaches do the job for FREE. I'm sure that is what is going on at your school. You might be amazed at how many quality individuals will volunteer their time if asked. My program also pays for everything those dills with the running of the team except for transportation. We raise all money for uniforms; meet entry, equipment (huge cost in track), overnight stays, and anything else. The school pays only for transportation to and from meets. We have to raise close to 10k a year to run the program to the level we need to so fundraising and I hate to say it asking for donations from corporations and parents is a big part of running a successful program. From my experience this is common practice in most places around the country. Schools, administrators, county commissioners, superintendents use sports to get money for other things. Properly run high school sports can almost pay for themselves. However, school administrators realize that high school sports is a hot button issue that can get the local community to raise more money in taxes to fund other areas in the school system. Oh and buy the way I was like you in highschool. I had one coach who coached many many state championships. Times have changed since then in order to be competitive on a consistent basis you have to have a large number of athletes and large numbers of coaches who specialize in key areas. In order to attract the kids you have to have the cool uniforms, t-shirts, brand new equipment. Shoot funding Pole Vault alone will take up a large chunk of money each year and that is just one event. |
| Snortner |
| ||
|
time to dump h.s. sports - and ncaa too, club model, just like europe - they already figured this out. schools in my area are sprawling estates - football stadium with track and turf infield, giant led screens, soccer fields, baseball/softball fields, basketball court, tennis courts, weight room for the ball teams, etc. a big fvckin' waste. |
| Ted in SA |
| ||
|
Club sports are funded by the states in Europe (with a small yearly cost if adults want to participate), so I do not see how that would work for the US. Especially since states are eliminating funding for children and the mentally ill. |