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The importance of high school sports is debated as local school boards face difficult budget decisions Date published: 3/8/2010
BY TAFT COGHILL JR. When Tony Lewis was in second grade, he and six other family members moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Fredericksburg with their cousin. The family meandered to homeless shelters and motels for the next five years. Lewis was often laughed at by classmates because of his living situation. That was until they saw his skills on the basketball court. Lewis joined the Walker-Grant Middle School basketball team in seventh grade. He got his first confidence boost when he was named a starter on James Monroe High School's junior varsity team as an eighth-grader. "Sports was a way out for me," Lewis said. "It felt like a sense of family. It kept me out of trouble. It gave me something to do." Stories like Lewis' aren't uncommon. Still, high school and middle school athletics are under intense scrutiny. School systems are getting less money as the nation copes with the recession. King George County proposed cutting all high school and middle school athletic programs before it put forth a proposal with no cuts last month. "When you have things like Head Start and Governor's School on the table [as possible cuts], everything is on the table," King George School Board member Renee Parker said. "Athletics are a part of that." The Spotsylvania County School Board proposed cutting middle school and freshman athletics before it voted 6-1 to implement a fee to participate in sports. Caroline, Culpeper and Orange counties are all exploring the possibility of cutting athletic programs. Dan Lebowitz, executive director of Northeastern University's Sport in Society program, said that's a mistake. He said high school athletics are "utterly essential" to society. "If you lose high school athletics or athletics at any level, the whole important lesson of cooperation gets lost," Lebowitz said. For many students, athletics are more important than academics. He said sports teach conflict-resolution skills and how to work with others. They also give coaches leadership skills that they often take to administration, and promote diversity. "Not everyone on a basketball or football team looks alike," Caroline Assistant Superintendent Eric Cunningham said. Lebowitz said student athletes learn things they don't pick up in the classroom, where they mostly work individually.
Date published: 3/8/2010
I love sports - I really do. But keeping sports while cutting academics and furloughing teachers? Messed up priorities.
I didn't see ANYTHING aobut taxpayer funded sports on your list. Obviously if quality equalled funding, our schools would be MUCH higher on the lists.
I was a Honor roll Student, NHS, was in the Upward Bound Program that used to be at Mary Washington College, Now known as University of Mary Washington. I am currently a Research Associate at a very weell known Pharmaceutical Company. I am also a Massage Therapist that works for a Chiropractor. Sports are open to everyone, they have try outs whether one makes the team its on that persons ability to play...The debate science club chess etc, have try outs to, only the best is kept.
A quality education is an economic incentive. What is one of the first questions people and companies ask in relocating. " How are the schools?" It is well documented that the quality of schools has a fairly sizeable impact on home values. Just Google! Here are 40-50 references. http://ideas.repec.org/p/osu/osuewp/010.html
But I believe cutting sports, blindly reducing education funding or making many non-core actvities pay to play will reduce the quality of children's education experience to the point folks will not buy homes in a particular county negatively impacting all of us through reduced property value.
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