[PRE-EMPTIVE DISCLAIMER: Before I proceed, let me make it clear that I largely love those who work in public education and believe they work hard. I come from a family with plenty of educators who have worked in the public education system. The people, in my assessment, are good. It's the system itself that is broken.]
On today’s radio show we talked mainly about upcoming levy elections in local school districts. I find something offensive about districts that make big news by (use whatever word you want here: “threatening”, “promising”, “informing”, “claiming”) that athletics will be cut if their particular upcoming levy fails to pass. It feels to me that their assumption is multi-tiered. The first tier of assumption is that we, the unwashed masses, will be so scared at losing athletics we’ll stumble into the polls with our three teeth and 12 fingers and obediently vote “Yes” like we’re told.
Da Bears!
The second assumption behind this extort-the-masses attempt is that the education system can’t be effective without athletics.
The question I have, in our world of changing priorities, is this: Should athletics be a sacred cow?
While I don’t like the idea of high school athletics going away, there’s a part of me that wants voters to call the administrators’ bluff, and see if they really have the cahones to axe football and basketball and volleyball and softball and wrestling and track, and whatever other sports the kids are playing now.
This form of communication from the district just feels manipulative. I hope the voters don’t fall for it.
Popularity: 7%
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- VOTE “NO” On The New School Bond! INSTEAD, Merge The Two Local School Districts Into One!!!
- Idaho asserts education as lowest priority
- Local Senator Bart Davis vs. Election Date Consolidation
- 1% Public Art Mandate
:@:)
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I have noticed over the years that if academic classes are cut or the music program is cut, people might complain for a little while, but then it kind of blows over. But let them threaten to cut the athletic programs then all hell breaks loose. Money can be spent for traveling to out of town games and in some cases paying for lodging and food, but the athletics will continue one way or another. I enjoy the athletic part of school just as much as anyone else, but I really do think we have our priorities wrong. It seems in high school that everything takes a second seat to athletics.
Idaho Native, EXACTLY! I say get rid of athletics. Let the community come together and form a high school division of the parks and recs dept. What is the actual percentage of those that participate in high school athletics in the high schools? My guess is that it is really low. Our students need to actually learn music and art. And be apart of debate clubs, and the FFA, BPA, or 4H. There are so many more usefull things for our student to be apart of. How many of the students in athletics actually go forward and make a career out of it? We don’t need to turn into Texas, and some other southern states, where High School sports are the Holy Grail.
Besides, if the student have to actually earn the money to be apart of these sports, they will more than likely appreciate it more, and we can put an end to this entitlement generation.
Parents should call the bluff. Athletics serve no educational value and are not life long skills. Let the children go to school to get educated, let the money be spent on education tools.
I don’t know much about the subject, but I do know that BSU’s fees are considerably lower than other State schools because of the success of their athletics dept. Perhaps this is the mindset of high schools – athletics provide income from advertising and ticket sales, so the budgeting for them is justified?
I don’t agree that we should have to do away with any part of public education. However, people are more willing to pay higher taxes for new F-22s than they are for new textbooks. The problem is that people aren’t willing to pay the taxes necessary to provide quality education, pure and simple.
Wrong. Teachers aren’t willing to do a damn good job with our children because they want more money in their own damn pockets.
Regardless of what teachers are or are not willing or wanting to do, they still need to support their own families. If we take away so much of their funds that they have to find other jobs so they can survive, I don’t think sports are going to be high on our worry list.
They certainly make enough to survive, and most of them are making more than they’re worth.
I have to disagree with comment 3. Sports do instill life long skills into our young people. And unless you’ve played sports in Jr and/or High school, you probably wouldn’t know this. Sports aren’t a part of our school system to teach valuable academic qualities to our children, but they certainly teach other equally important skills that children carry with them throughout their lives. ie: the value of hard work, problem solving, learning to work as a team, learning to accept defeat as a part of life, at the same time striving to do ones best. These are just a few examples, but they are qualities our young people carry with them throughout their lives and are very important imo.
While I do believe that athletcis can serve as a valuable learning tool, I do not believe they should take priority in educational budget matters.
I agree with the majority of the comments made. I definitely like the idea behind comment #2 in proposing that school athletics be released from the control of the school districts and turned over to private groups similar to our current little leagues.
Why should taxpayers have to support an individual’s desire to play football, run track, or kick a soccer ball around? Can this not be done through the YMCA or youth sporting programs?
Again, back to comment #2 – yes, programs like Business Professionals of America, DECA, VICA, FFA, and 4H should take priority over athletics. How many of our student athletes go on to play in the NFL, NBA, NHL, or the MLB? Compare that number to the individuals who utilize the fore mentioned programs to obtain jobs and help them along in their careers.
In agreement with others here – CALL THEIR BLUFF! Let’s see them grow a pair. Force them to prioritize education.
While I agree that athletic programs shouldn’t take priority over education, high school sports aren’t put in place to put kids into the NFL, NHL, NBA etc. and I’m not sure why that issue continues to come up.
It’s sad enough that most school systems have already done away with PE classes. One in four children in America are overweight. Remove athletic programs from our schools and that number will easily double.
Long before athletics became a part of our school system, students were in good shape and rarely overweight. Have you watched the news when the sports come on? A lot of the players are overwieght. Good for them getting out there and getting active. But I think the reason why kids are overweight is because of the parents. Stop hiding behind other reasons. The parents are supposed to be in charge, they buy the food, they hand out the money, they drive their kids around. They need to step up to the plate and say hey, my kids getting overweight. What can I do. Start exercising with them, feed them the right foods, set the right example and then they will follow. Kids won’t just magically lose weight because their parents think that if they enroll them in sports that they will be active and lose it.
I know many families that stop off at fast food places between practices. How is that acomplishing anything. Besides, it isn’t the schools responsibility to make sure that kids are healthy. They do their part with the school lunches, and I know that P.E. has not been cut from the schools in this area.
Tell the parents to get a grip and become more responsible with the health of their children. Maybe in the process we will become healthier.
If the schools cannot get the funds together, and they actually look at how much they spend on athletics, they may find that it really isn’t benefiting the school. Privatize athletics. Let the community take care of it. So then the school can actually educate all of the children that will benefit them all. Not a small handfull.
I’m really not sure how I feel about athletics and how they affect the school, but there is one thing that I know for sure.
There are lots of kids whose families stretch to afford the extra fees to participate in the athletics programs that the school offers. If the athletics are taken from the school and placed in off-school places, such as the ymca, there will be even less families that can afford to let their children participate.
When I was in high school, almost 30 years ago, I had a good friend that was accepted into the Honeybees (for those of you not from around here, that is, or was, the elite cheer squad at Bonneville High School). She quickly learned that this was not something she was going to be able to do because nearly every activity required a new ridiculously expensive outfit. Her family wasn’t poor, but this was more than they could manage and she had to drop out.
There goes another wedge between the “haves” and the “have nots”.
I do agree with my4sons in that school sponsored athletics will not keep children healthy if the rest of their lives are not healthy.
I would like to know some stats as far as to what percentage of school age kids take advantage of sports, including all of the related groups, such as cheer squads, bands, track meets, etc…
I would think that when you combine all of those aspects, there is probably a higher percentage of kids participating than people would think.
Oh, and don’t forget dance and gymnastics classes.
Several years ago, I was at a school sponsored event where they were honoring student achievers in different aspects of school life. Everytime a student was called to the front because they had lettered in some sport, the crowd went crazy with their clapping and cheering. Then a student was called to the front because he was sitting for the Rhodes scholarship . There was very little acknowledgment of this achievement. There was just a smattering of applause in the audience. It was at this time that I realized how skewed our priorities are. The jocks are treated as royalty while the Rhodes scholars often go unrecognized.
I’m in agreement with privatizing the athletic programs. I’m betting that once the privatization takes place, there will be many sponsors come forward and help foot the bill. I think they should keep the PE programs as part of the school curriculum.
Pardon my gripe over Neal’s gripe.
In my opinion, high school athletics is the last place to place the blame when it comes to the failures of public education. Why don’t we talk about the problems with the power of unions that unfairly protect poor teachers, that tie the hands of administrators who can’t run their schools like a business and hire and fire based on merit?
If you want to water-down public education, then get rid of athletics. In many respects, high school sports is one aspect of our public education system that is working.
As an athlete, I’m sure I am biased. But I also have a teaching degree and a master’s in education, and I believe my bias is grounded in the reality, research, and experience.
High school athletic programs are not just for the “few”. Last time I checked, not many (if any) schools cut kids who come out for football or track. Between volleyball, soccer, football, softball, baseball, wrestling, basketball, tennis, and track…there are many opportunities for a wide variety of kids. In fact, I believe there are very few kids who would be unable to participate in at least one high school sport if they so desired. (If anybody has exact numbers on the percentage of those who participate, I’d love to see them!)
Basketball and football games provide a venue for people in the community to come together and enjoy more than the game–but also performances from the band and cheerleaders and performing arts groups.
I agree with Alice’s comment–privatizing athletics won’t create more opportunities–it will create an even greater participation gap between the “have’s” and the “have nots”. In Utah the junior high sports are “privatized”. What happens, at least in basketball and volleyball, is the elite few participate in travel teams, which are quite expensive. Those who can’t afford to play on travel teams get behind and have no chance of making most of the teams in high school. You could say the same thing happens in Idaho in the off-season, but at least everyone can try-out and have the opportunity to participate on the junior high teams.
When I was teaching school in Alaska I was trained on the Search Institute’s Research on the 40 Developmental Assets. Bottom line–participation in high school sports is a sure fire way to boost assets that will not only keep kids out of trouble, but facilitate their contributions as productive members of society.
I don’t think ANY high school program should be a sacred cow. I think athletic budgets should be subject to scrutiny and efficiency must be a priority. An even greater priority ought to be the quality of the coaches who work with our young people.
Let’s look at our junior high programs. How often are the coaches truly qualified to coach the sport, and how often are they teachers who are just collecting a stipend to babysit? I know at one of our local junior highs, the 8th grade basketball coach never even played HIGH SCHOOL basketball. How is that for seeking excellence? If budgets are the concern, why not keep the junior high PROGRAMS in place, but open up the coaching positions to volunteers in the community who may not hold a teaching certificate. There are plenty of former college athletes and other excellent coaches who work outside of education who are looking for the opportunity to give back. Why don’t we allow our administrators to work with the high school coaches of that particular sport to interview and hire the BEST people for the positions at the junior high level? That would cut out some costs, and make the programs better for the kids who participate.
Last thing–I can’t thank my junior high and high school coaches enough for the things they taught me through sports. In a world where our kids don’t have to kill what they eat or work from dawn to dusk on the family farm, athletics provides a vehicle for many to learn lessons they don’t learn anywhere else. Lessons like being a team player, staying focused, dealing with disappointment, winning with class, pushing through pain, prioritizing time, working hard in difficult circumstances, not giving up, etc. Participation in athletics also builds lifelong friendships and increases motivation to succeed in the classroom. And it’s FUN!
Athletics should not take precedence over other important programs in our schools, but they should not take the back seat either.