Town cuts high school sports

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/06/23/stoneham_cuts_all_sports_at_high_school/

This happened in another town in this area, but private donors and other forms of funding saved the programs. That may or may not happen in this case.
Does anyone know of a community in another state where this happened and no private donors stepped up to save the programs and they really were eliminated?

 

I believe sports was on the chopping block a few years ago in one of the Maryland localities -- Prince George's, perhaps? But they managed the funding.

 

Wow. I don't see this becoming a trend though.

 

When I was growing up, the school board used this as a threat if one of the operating levies didn't pass. It passed -- narrowly.

But they allegedly had plans to cancel all extra-curricular activities if the vote had failed.

 

It happened in Challis, Idaho. But after not playing initially, the parents stepped up to save wrestling because Challis was one of the best wrestling teams in the state.

 

Things are about 180 degrees different in my area. Parents raised over $10,000 this spring to have one local school's football games televised on cable television this coming fall. I can't see any school in area ever cutting out all sports.

 

i wonder why they don't consider merging with a neighboring school district? that seems to be what i've seen schools do in more rural areas. obviously you need the other district to cooperate though.

 

My senior year it happened. Everything...as in ALL extra circular activities...gone.

The stories I could tell...

 

It almost happened in Lorain, Ohio in the mid 90s as I recall.

 

The town where I live is so poor, with zero industries ( and also ignorant in regard to the importance of education, ) that there are basically no sports programs, or anything else to speak of at all - soccer and basketball, boys and girls, that's it, nothing else, nada, zilch. In fact, we don't even have a high school in our county - kids have to tuition out to other schools in other counties, or even out of state, and ride buses for more than an hour, which then excludes them from anything after school, sports or otherwise. I've helped bankroll Little League for three years, but I'm done. Sad thing is that the kids who need it most, just as they are entering adolescence, get cut off.

One of these days, this country has to get its act together about the funding of education, because the kids in my town are getting completely screwed. They get nothing.

All these kids are left behind.

 

Just to play Devil's Advocate, there are many European countries (that routinely outrank the U.S. in K-12 education) that offer no after-school sports programs and no one accuses them of being "ignorant in regard to the importance of education."

A sports journalists board probably isn't the best place to make this case, but some might argue that ending school-sponsored sports might actually IMPROVE education, rather than hinder it.

 

It would save education in this country, theoretically. But we look to the school system as public welfare rather than an educational institutional. I mean, they feed the hungry...they might as well serve as the vehicle for sports.