The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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March 13, 2010

Our View: School athletics model may need work

The Free Press

State and federal budget cuts arriving this year at levels far deeper than in the past will focus public attention on the value of combining the essential service of education and the significant, but secondary, service of school athletics.

Achieving physical and mental strength — a sound mind as well as a sound body — has been around for centuries as a worthwhile and even essential human endeavor. In modern day, that plays out most dramatically in the mix of sports and education at the high school and college levels.

It’s worth considering the future of this combination as high school and college tournaments hit their peak. We’ve been here before. Previous budget cuts have resulted in higher fees to families, and the elimination of some sports. It’s reasonable for taxpayers to question the large amounts of educational dollars spent on athletics. Uniforms, equipment, travel expenses add up, and in the eyes of some taxpayers, may seem extravagant given their own laid off status or stagnant pay.

Still, there seems ample support for athletics as part of the school curriculum. There are many benefits for young people to learn the value of competition and teamwork. These things will serve them well later in life as they themselves becomes productive citizens who will be relied upon to pay taxes of their own.

But many forecasters are predicting an economy that will not return to the norms we’ve been used to over the last 20 years. The demographics simply dictate that there will be the same amount or higher levels of need for government services but fewer people paying the bill. Aging baby-boomers, for example, will start to rely on government services like Medicare that are right now guaranteed. Elected officials are loathe to cut these programs that serve a lot of voters, so their costs are not likely to go away. On the flip side, a lot of high school and college students don’t vote.

Demographic and political factors are moving against public funding of athletics connected to education. The trend is not likely to abate, but more likely to grow. Leaders in school athletics and their constituencies need to be ready to defend, justify and promote their endeavors as something that enhances the public good. School spirit probably won’t cut it as a reason for investing in athletics.

Fortunately, that public good argument for athletics may not be hard to make. And public bodies are likely to endorse the idea, but, unfortunately, less likely to endorse paying for it.

So other ideas should be explored sooner than later to prepares for a sizable contest with taxpayers. Can school athletics be privatized? They have a ready revenue stream in that they offer entertainment in the form of events. There may be foundations willing to support athletics for the higher purposes now unaffordable to the public bodies. Perhaps government grants for attacking childhood obesity can be tied to the funding of athletics. We know childhood obesity eventually costs the public money through higher health care costs, and we know athletic activity prevents that. We need only consider some kind of connection with the public money.

Above all, we must realize the old model of education and athletics may not work five years from now. But if we conceive plans now to come up with creative funding methods, we can prevent the damage to society caused by a termination of school athletics.

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