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Sunday, September 27, 2009
Pay to Play?
What if sports budgets were completely "out of pocket"? West Essex school system in New Jersey has gone to a "Pay to Play" system for middle and high school sports. This school system has the second highest property taxes in the country and they found that this is the only way to keep the sports programs alive. Students on free or reduced lunch don't have to pay, however, for everyone else - it's Pay or Don't Play.
The schools finances are being cut to the bone. I can assure you it is being felt in the classrooms across Georgia. Sports programs will also be affected.
ReplyDeleteI can see this a reality for the future. We used to pay fees all the time in school but then we got away from that. I see it returning due to the financial situation.
The President wants us to get to all year round school to improve education while GA is continuing to cut required days to attend school each year because of lack of funds. This is for the academic part of education. The sports programs are important but these are secondary and must be on the back burner. Parents are going to have to Pay To Play one way or another.
Heck, big college sports are already pay to play. It's just that the players are "paid" in the form of scholarships (except the walk ons) to provide labor for the televised games that provide huge revenues for the schools.
ReplyDeleteI would assume if Dekalb could figure out a way to sell naming rights to their crappy stadiums, they would.
You are so right about the President's plan to extend school hours, Ella. Read on:
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON – Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_re_us/us_more_school
"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
I know this area and school system. They, like DeKalb, have a bloated administration. They also pay high salaries and have excellent benefits. Quick note: they have excellent school nurses and guidance counselors.
ReplyDeleteMuch of their problems are self-induced. The administration of a school system should be meand and lean. We have the opposite here in DeKalb.
This school system also has a teachers' union, so teachers can't be furloughed or not given the raises that are in their contract.
ReplyDeleteOur children don't need to be in school longer or year round, they need to be provided with quality when they are at school. I don't the school system raising my child and I as a teacher, don't want to raise other people's children.
I've suggested many times that the options we should provide for those who need it include after school tutorials, snacks, games, (support the local Y and Boys and Girls Clubs) - until 6 or 7 pm. We really do need to act like a village and raise a lot of kids - if we want to change the cycle.
ReplyDeleteI even think it would be sweet to provide summer camps all summer for at-risk kids. All day - 8-6 pm and a sleep-away camp for a week or two - now there's a place where kids do an amazing amount of learning, growing and maturing. Not to mention - the bonus of physical fitness.
All we need is the money - and this is how I would redirect title 1 funds -- to give at-risk kids a chance at a middle class upbringing.
And the sleep-away camps are not JUST for at-risk kids - we actually pay the $600 or so to send them to camp and mix in with the middle class kids whose parents send them.
ReplyDelete