The Case Against High School Sports Funding in America

In order for students to have the success they need in school, it is essential for them to on their education before sports. In Amanda Ripley’s article Should Your School Get Rid of Sports? she says, “More than 20 nations have better high school graduation rates” (10). Ripley continues by stating that, Jenny, an 18

In “The Case Against High School Sports,” Amanda Ripley, a journalist for The Atlantic, states that America is spending more money on high school sports rather than on academic purposes. “High School Sports Aren’t Killing Academics, “ written by Daniel Bowen, a postdoctoral scholar at Rice University, and Colin Hitt, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, discusses the benefits that come out of sports programs to improve the classroom and the school’s social capital. Co-founder of a sports recruiting social network, Kai Sato’s article “The Case For High School Sports,” focuses on how school does not just involve scoring well on a math test but to educate us to be productive in what lies ahead. Ripley’s article discusses how

After reading the two articles, "What's the Name of High School Football" and "Are High School Sports Good for Kids" and also watching the video "Kids and Sports" If the mayor or even the school board had a meeting about not keeping funding school sports, then that is not okay. My reasons are, Kids won't have fun, no academics for the college records if they want to get in an athletic college for sports, and kids won't interact that much to other kids. Do you want the school to be boring and no fun for kids?

According to Ripley “80 percent of students passed their classes [after their district canceled sports], compared with 50 percent the previous fall” (11). She goes on to mention that Nathan, a prior quarterback for the same district, said that you couldn’t fall behind on schoolwork because sports weren’t taking up your time (Ripley 11). This information is important because it demonstrates that athletics are causing student failure, which is undoubtedly reprehensible. It is plainly shown that school sports are causing academic failure which will greatly deteriorate student’s futures, and in turn, the world’s

One reason why the sports budget should not be increased is because of health issues. One of the largest concerns for parents of teen athletes is injuries. One of the leading sports injuries are concussions. Concussions are caused by one large hit to the head which causes symptoms like headaches, dizziness, and light sensitivity. If not treated, it can lead to brain damage. While studies do show that concussions have risen from “7,000 to 22,000” (Notebook) reported cases a year. With the budget increase we can hire personal trainers to help with stretching and sports injuries. Then we can prevent injuries all together. With safer equipment, together as a school can make our athletics safer and better.

Positives of Premont’s decision to suspend sports include a 30% increase in non-failing students, higher attendance at parent-teacher night, and a decline in misbehavior. Premont, as a result of suspending sports, gets to stay open. High School sports have a negative impact on the school district, and are a large expense especially when compared to academics. High school focus on sports harms academic performance and allows athletes, who are the minority, to “control” the school. America is stagnant in the development of academic performance as a result of sports.

The NCAA states, “Nearly eight million students currently participate in high school athletics in the United States. More than 460,000 compete as NCAA athletes, and just a select few within each sport move on to compete at the professional or Olympic level” (“Estimated Probability”). Everyone agrees that Americans have to improve academic achievement in schools today; however, it is hard to do so with a barrage of athletic activities. Students are focusing more on sports then academics, and this diversion seems to be costly. In order to fix this, high school athletes should be required to maintain a 2.3 grade point average in order to participate in sports because the primary mission of any serious academic institution must be to develop the young person’s intellectual and cognitive skills and help one get recruited; also, there is a very low chance of athletes continuing their careers at the college or professional level.

Whenever someone goes to a school they are going to see that they have a sports team; however, people do not know how much these activities actually cost. According to author Amanda Ripley in a recent article about sports, she states that a grass field can cost more than $20,000 a year (2). “For travel games, schools pay for the busses for teams and also for the band, cheerleaders, and hotels” (Ripley 4). This evidence shows that schools have money but they’re using on sports; instead of using the money on sports they can use it on the education or new technology for the school. Therefore if districts want to save any money they should really consider suspending after school sports.

Any school district knows that there are many costs that go into athletics. In her article, Amanda Ripley reported that simply maintaining a grass field can cost more than $20,000 a year, she also states that new bleachers can cost half a million dollars (10). In ripley’s article “Should Your School Get Rid Of Sports”, Superintendent Ernest Singleton made a decision to suspend all school activities and recognized his school district could save about $150,000 dollars a year (Ripley 10). In addition school athletics should be removed because it could reduce large amount of money put into the athletic programs. It’s clear that saving money isn’t the only advantage to cutting physical activities it can also help students to focus in their education.

In the article, The Case Against High-School Sports suggests that American schools are putting too much focus on sports than on education. After analyzing the gathered information, I have concluded that sports are being pushed over education in the United States. In this article, I found myself agreeing with many of the points the author was making. The United States is far behind many countries in our educational system; we don’t seem to take education as seriously as we do sports. We also spend an unbelievable amount of our average school funding on athletes, while sometimes spending less than half on each student. Lastly, we have plenty of evidence of schools improving with school sports cuts, but we haven’t been successful in creating a real balance.

Every year, thousands of people move to the United States from all over the world to play sports. According to the district they threatened to flunk sports down because they were rolling to cause financial problems and it would cut the cost of equipment. Therefore, schools should not have sports because they can cause district's financial problems, academic failures and students will not have the proper rooms to teach.

A school in Premont, Texas was threatened to be shut down for its financial problems and academic failures. Additionally, by getting rid of sports schools could save up to 150,000 and sometimes more. Amanda Ripley from scholastic scope says “New bleachers can cost half a million dollars. Maintaining grass field can cost more than 20,000 a year.” furthermore, When teams travel for games schools have to hire substitutes, buses, the band players, cheerleaders, food, hotels, sectrity, painting the lines, and cleaning up. Snacks sold at games rarely if never cover these costs. All these costs can put a financial burden on schools and by getting rid of sports the amount of money schools can safe is

According to the article, “Why Student Athletes Should Not Be Paid” it states,“attendance at many of these schools costs tens of thousands of dollars per year.” Where is all the money they’re paying going to? It could be going towards

I feel that eliminating athletic programs in the school will take a lot away from the students at this school and that we need to find a way to keep sports in our school system. Students grades will drop if we eliminate their opportunity to participate in sports. Being in good health is very good for their still developing young adult bodies, and the only way some of them stay in good health is through sports; are we really going to deny them the only way they can stay in good health? The opportunities possible for a student to get through sports are life-changing; if we get rid of athletic programs those opportunities are almost impossible for an undergraduate to achieve. Keeping sports in the school will be the best thing for students to have and create a successful school education and make the best of their life.

Everything in the world cost money, but everyone makes sure that what they enjoy doing gets the most priority of money spent towards it. The average cost of a high school sport per athlete is on average $400 (Granata). This does not include any extra sporting gear for the athlete, hotel money, traveling out of town, or anything else that is not base price. Many parents and other sport spectators use money as a reason that sports should be taken out of high school because they see it as too expensive for just a little bit of fame. There has been a tremendous amount of solutions for funding high school sports. Many coaches around the entire country have come up with ways to start fundraising to make sure that their sport does not get cut because of funding. A wrestling coach started a program where the community could “rent a wrestler” and the wrestling team would get the benefits, and a football coach at Wilsonville came up with a fundraiser “chicken and bean bowl” which would generate $7,000 in donations and raffles (Daschel). There are many coaches that have gone through the extreme to get money for their sport which shows that there are ways to fund any sport. Most sports are very expensive, but it should not mean that a high school student’s dream should be taken away.