Like many communities, Vermont is discussing our education budget. What I have found curious is that athletics rarely gets mentioned as a possible cut, while classroom teachers seem like a natural. I know that much of the debate is emotional–the cost is high, there are a number of cars in the parking lot of schools compared to children taught, and anyone who has been on an athletic team has fond memories of what athletics can provide–but it never seems to even become a debate.
Truth, there are plenty of cuts to be had before classroom teachers or athletics. Let’s start with buildings: If student enrollment is going down, why do we have the same number of classrooms? Close off the worst part of the building for power and heating savings, or rent it out. Please, notice that this reads like a Rorschach test in that I try to take no position; I see the point of both sides, and, like I said there are other places to cut first.
ATHETICS: FITTING THE MISSION OF EDUCATION?
The case for athletics in complimenting the mission of schools has for years been anecdotal, based around tales from the gridiron and the pages of young adult literature. Intuitively, people knew it was important. Later, researchers linked athletics to higher grades and self-esteem, lower pregnancy rates and greater success after leaving school. Recently, economist Betsey Stevenson of the Wharton School of Business looked at the participation of girls in sports on a state-by-state level to determine if the benefits are indeed a product of participation. Her conclusion was an unqualified yes.
Still, facing budgets where Vermonters debate basic necessities like health care and maintaining our infrastructure, can schools continue to support athletic programs? Are the benefits too intangible for the current economic climate? When the topic does come up, it is more often a sacred cow in the budget that is assumed to have value.
INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORTS: A HISTORY
At the turn of the 20th century sport was seen as a necessary component in developing a sound body and mind. Already an important element of private schools and colleges, public schools adopted sports as a way of increasing community pride and of offering another outlet for student energy. At that time few students went beyond eighth grade before starting their adult life of farming, apprenticeship or general work. Often, it gave students inclined to drop out an incentive to remain in school and was a carrot to what some considered the stick of academics.
As the century moved forward, families in general and children in particular had more leisure time at their disposal. Child labor laws and mandatory school requirements kept more students in school. Technology freed the need for children to help on farms. A decreasing work day allowed parents to participate in sports, serving as role models. The rise of professional sports provided further aspirations for students beyond academics and their future careers. The twentieth century saw the rise of childhood, and with it play and athletics.
Representing schools became an issue of pride, and with that came expectations. Still, like many elements of education, the cost of travel and uniforms was relatively low by today’s standards. Traditions formed, and competition on the court saw a competition of costs and dedication. Vermont has avoided much of the professionalism that comes with rivalries. The Rutland-Mount St. Joseph and other regional grudge matches are fought by students on the field, with the modest support of their communities, and not through extensive facilities that rival many colleges. These are contests of pride more than fundraising prowess.
Still, as the rest of the world seeps into Vermont, so does the level of play. Students have an increased schedule, and participate in additional leagues that travel beyond a sport’s natural season and Vermont’s borders. Title IX, which mandated equal funding for girls’ sports, has not taken much from boys’ sports but increased overall participation. Not only have these changes increased the demands on student time and commitment, but also the cost of sports and its place in schools.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Athletics have grown in size and importance.
While sports provides an excellent opportunity for lessons in working with a group, discipline and the morality infused in sportsmanship, the reality is often not so black-and-white. Champlain Valley Union High School (CVU) allowed one of its students to play even after being charged for drug possession. Colchester’s hockey coach is being terminated because of actions some found inappropriate. Some schools have students sign pledges not to drink or do drugs, but the few actions taken against violators are often appealed by parents. The pressure to win in the name of the school too often tempers the lessons of fairness and good sportsmanship.
A look at the numbers is revealing. According to its posted budget CVU expects to spend $566,058 in 2011 on athletics, while about double, or $1,035,955, for mathematics. Considering the importance of math in the 21st century—and the fact that every student takes math—the budget priorities seems askew. Half-a-million dollars is a lot of money each year to spend on a program not essential to the school’s academic mission. Similarly, Middlebury Union High School (MUHS) has budgeted $558,816 to athletics and co-curricular activities for 2011. Nearly two-thirds of that is salaries for coaches, advisors, trainers, administrators and officials. Most schools in Vermont are not as large as CVU and MUHS, but their budgets are often in the same proportion. If you consider that a teacher costs a district $70,000 after benefits the athletic budget of each school represents eight teachers. As we whittle down budgets, increase class sizes and debate co-pays and dental plans any school with an interscholastic athletic program has this additional burden.
Of course, these numbers are not the entire story. Within the MUHS budget are non-athletic activities like yearbook and other clubs. CVU has numerous club sports, like rugby and ultimate frisbee, which are well run but exempt from many of the rules (and associated costs) that guide Vermont Principal Association sanctioned sports. The numbers above come from the proposed budgets, and as such those numbers probably have a bit of flexibility that is not clear from the webpage. It should also be noted that many schools and specific sports within schools have booster clubs that raise a tremendous amount of money for programs, relieving taxpayers from difficult decisions about new uniforms and lighting fields for night games. Also, many school gymnasiums and athletic fields are used by town recreation programs and others, in addition to being used for academics.
That said, athletic programs also hide a number of costs. While most adults enjoy low-key team athletics on town recreation fields or personal pursuits in the gym, schools maintain gymnasiums and athletic fields. These are the classrooms of P.E., but as Phys. Ed has moved from team sports to fitness to wellness in many schools the facilities of some schools rival the best clubs. The Brigham decision was meant to equalize education throughout the state, but anyone who has traveled with a middle school team around the state has seen the disparity between facilities. From gymatoriums—cafeterias where the tables fold into the walls and games are played on linoleum tiles—to multiple state-of-the-art gymnasiums flanked by rooms of exercise machines the disparity is striking. To compete—the goal of interscholastic athletics—students need to take a bus to another school. Besides the time spent on busses in rural Vermont, transportation costs money. The more rigorous the schedule, and more rural the school, the greater the transportation budget needs to be.
Unlike Physical Education and Health, interscholastic athletics are not necessarily taught by a teacher. In this age of demands for highly qualified instructors, coaches are hired based on the goal of the program. Some are more instructional while others are hired to run a competitive team. Lessons on sportsmanship and good, long term health depend on the quality of the coach and are largely unchecked until after an incident occurs. Their pay is often low and the motivation is a belief in the importance of sports in the life of young people.
Unlike most academic offerings, interscholastic sports are not always open to all students. For many sports, high schools cannot afford to run their programs without excluding some students. CVU, for example, has an active soccer program that cuts many aspiring players. It is in no way alone, as even schools that fail to offer much competition still have large pools of prospective players ready to don the uniform.
Youngsters have options, too. Many athletes play on teams in addition to their school’s. Starting with Little League, Pop Warner and various soccer programs, students graduate to Legion and Babe Ruth baseball and Nordic soccer. Often, town recreation departments and civic organizations sponsor teams, leagues and summer camps for local kids at various levels. This is in addition to the public school’s Physical Education and Health programs. Vermonters also participate extensively in sports not offered by their schools, including skiing, skateboarding and hiking. And, of course, many kids just play pick-up games in any space available with anyone who is around.
The future of athletics is, for most, personal. Few play football as adults, yet several schools have added the sport in the past ten years. Instead, most adults run or go to the gym, yet few schools offer exercise rooms and equipment to its students. Proposals to change the curriculum, and the costs that go with it for new equipment, are often weighed against what programs would be cut. Participation in pick-up basketball and league softball is solid, but relaxed and requires a single gym or field and no luxuries. Our interscholastic programs do not resemble their adult counterparts. What, then, is the purpose of these programs?
Imagine if someone stood up at town meeting and proposed paying an adult to take twenty kids on a school bus to various museums eight times a year. While the merit of such a proposal might find an audience, the line item for salary, bus and admission tickets would not. Yet, basketball achieves this every year because it is already in the budget. When Title IX was proposed, no one was against the idea of women playing sports, but few wanted to pay the extra costs. Wrestling money from men’s sports to equalize women’s tore communities apart. If that same trip was chaperoned by a self-taught art historian and not a teacher, and those twenty students were chosen from fifty that were interested the debate would become even more heated. The fight many communities have over enrichment coordinators mirrors this. That many towns have recreation departments with mirror programs, and parents who independently offer such excursions, would sink any museum-group proposal before the citizen proposing it sat down.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Athletics have benefits, as Professor Stevenson and many others have concluded. The young men and women playing do represent schools and communities, and make these institutions special. The emotional link between a team’s success and the community is priceless. They are also fun. Just as jazz band might complement a solid music program, interscholastic athletics is in addition to the regular Physical Education and Health curriculum. Clearly, it can complement the mission of schools, but so can many programs being cut this year. Like any program—from Science to English—it is as strong as the individuals running it and the community that supervises it. As we debate the merits of a music and arts education, it is worth considering the place that interscholastic sports holds in our minds and our wallets.
Currently, educators and politicians are debating changing school as we know it. Proposals include lengthening the school year by nearly sixty days, going to a calendar of four weeks of school, two weeks vacation, all year long, and cutting back to four ten-hour days a week. The idea of virtual high schools—offering on-line courses to students—is a hot topic of discussion. School as we know it is changing. With all of these changes, for reasons ranging from cost to meeting the needs of 21st century learners, the discussion of the future of sports will come up.
The debate will be, if anything, interesting. If sports are about participation, intramurals and its lower costs might fit the bill. If it is about representing a community, perhaps the focus should shift towards academic competitions like debate teams. Health issues are dealt with through Health and P.E. classes, and might call for a fitness center decked out with the latest exercise machines instead of a football team. If interscholastic athletics have a value beyond fun, its advocates need to coalesce their reasons and justify the expense in this age of tightening budgets and academic accountability.
