Home > News & Events > 2009 News > 2004-2008 News	Print View

Motivated by the desire to eliminate participation fees for all high school extracurricular activities, a coalition of interested parties is examining the idea of levying a tax to pay the program costs in each high school.

That tax could be in the form of a property tax or sales tax increase. The group, led by the Minnesota Athletic Directors Association, is organizing with an eye to asking the Minnesota Legislature to pass a special law next session to provide funds for extracurricular activities.

High school sports and co-curricular activities like art, band, chorus and debate, are important to students and to their communities.

It’s been said that participation in high school extracurricular activities is the most accurate predictor of future success in life.  

This participation is a vital motivator of many students and the data shows these students have higher grades, better graduation rates, good discipline and use less nicotine and drugs.

This outcome alone should cause community leaders to value the importance of high school sports and other co-curricular activities.

High school sports on a Friday night rally a community and are a source of pride.

Yet, not all students can pay the fees school district officials maintain they have to charge because there isn’t enough money. Those students who qualify for free and reduced lunches don’t pay the fees.  

The well-off families pay the fees and the kids in between, who may need extracurricular activities the most, can’t participate.

Parents who don’t have the money to pay $300 for their kid to go out for football are shortchanged. The very nature of a public school system should enable every student to participate regardless of income.

School boards, except for an enlightened few, apparently agree that charging fees is necessary to maintain the programs. As a result, those who can pay, play and that’s isn’t fair.

A strong case can be made that funding a good extracurricular program is a community responsibility, perhaps by paying a few more dollars in taxes.

Critics will counter that the role of the schools is to provide an education and not to provide athletics, the arts, the high school band and the debate team. They say those are extras and should be funded separately by the parents.

They miss the point, because the co-curricular programs like sports are an integral part of the educational process.

Studies show that participants in school activities generally have higher grade-point averages, lower dropout rates, better daily attendance and fewer discipline problems than non-participants.

The data shows that those who play two sports generally have higher grades than those who play one and those who play three sports have higher grades than the two-sport athletes.

Thomas Boswell, writing in a column for the Washington Post, observes, something community leaders around this area should embrace:  “There’s no better place to spend your money than on a strong athletics program that involves as many students as possible in as many sports as possible.”

Legislators and other candidates should be asked their position on passing legislation to pay a few extra tax dollars to provide an extracurricular program that will benefit all children regardless of their ability to pay.

Editor’s note: Don Heinzman is editorial writer for ECM Publishers Inc.

http://abcnewspapers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3546&Itemid=42