Should fees be charged for athletic participation?
As time marches forward, it becomes more and more expensive for our youth to participate in sports. When registration day comes along, the parents have to fill out all the necessary paperwork and open their pocketbooks for their child to play sports. Or do they? Sure club teams or private companies charge fees for participants to join or play in their organization. So why is it that our children have to pay to play an extracurricular activity in school? Shouldn’t this be a part of the educational experience?
Schools charge fees so that they make athletics possible for students. Without athletic fees there may not be sports. Athletic fees might provide necessary equipment for the sport teams. Equipment can get very costly. Our football program at Granada High School pays $175 for each Ridell helmet that is purchased for the players. Each year the helmets need to be refurbished. In a school district in Boston, those sports that require less equipment such as cheer, have smaller athletic fees as compared to those that require more equipment, such as ice hockey (Buote, 2004, p. 2). Athletic teams may need balls, nets, pads, uniforms, and let’s not forget the coaching stipends. Then there is the need for transportation to and from the athletic events. Depending on how many teams are in your league, pre-season games or tournaments, and post season play, this expense can also be quite costly. Our school district does not have school buses, so the schools have to reserve chartered buses from a bus company.
Two years ago, the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District found itself in a budget crisis and needed to cut spending. One of the first places in which the fees were cut was to the athletics programs. The district cut $1 million from the athletics budget given to the schools so that it could make up for it elsewhere. After the cuts, the parents of the students were asked to donate $120 to assist with the funding of athletics (“Work Begins,” 2006 p. 2). If the district plans to give the school back some of the money, the fees would still remain at about $80 per athlete to compete in a sport.
The high school that I am contracted out to, increased the athletic fees by a small amount so that the student athletes could have my athletic training services on campus all year long. I am on campus for practices, all home games, and travel with our Varsity Football team to away events. I have a room that is equipped with three treatment tables and a taping table to perform necessary preventative and rehabilitative services to our student athletes. Besides the tables, the hospital provides me with all the supplies necessary to provide care to the athletes and modalities which include ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and a Game Ready unit. When injured, the athlete has immediate care at their finger tips. I also have the resources to refer them into our hospital system without much difficulty. Our Sports Medicine agreement with the school also provides the coaches with CPR classes, Pre-Participation Examinations for our student athletes, and seminars provided for parents, athletes and coaches.
On the other side of the issue, the parents are being asked for money for this, that and the other. Is it right for all athletes parents to pay for services or incur expenses for things that their children may never benefit from? As part of education, should the schools be able to provide athletics for the students with no additional charges? In the Livermore School District, the Board of Trustees was more interested in paying back loans than to bring programs back or reinstate funds to programs where the budgets had been cut (“Work Begins,” 2006 p. 1). We should be able to provide every student with the opportunity to be involved in sport within our schools. It teaches them how to work as a team and teaches them interactive skills that can be used later on in life. Athletics may also be a way to keep our students out of trouble. Some students even find that their grades are reflective of them participating in sports. If they are unable to maintain a grade point average of a 2.0 or better, then they are unable to compete in sports. Every student should have the opportunity to play a sport. At Granada, if the student athlete is unable to provide funding to participate, they are granted a scholarship and it comes out of the general athletics fund.
Being an athletic trainer, I can see both sides of the issue. I believe that each student should be given an opportunity to play sports if they so desire. It would be wonderful if the schools in California were able to provide these extracurricular activities with no charge to the athlete or their parents. As more and more funds are cut from our state budget, education seems to always take a hard hit. Unfortunately, the schools don’t have much choice but to pass some of those losses onto the community. In doing so, some individuals may not be as fortunate as some of my athletes and are unable to play a sport due to lack of funds within their home. Below you will find more problems to think about and comment on with regards to this issue.
How much do your students have to pay? Why is it that some sports have to pay more than other sports at the same school?
Is there a maximum amount per child per year? Or a discount if you have more than one student athlete competing in sports?
Where does the money from athletic fees go?
Do you have an athletic budget?
Does your team have to do fundraising in addition to the students being charged an athletic fee?
Does your school district provide the school with funding for athletics? If so, how do you know how much and how it is distributed?
If a student is unable to pay the fees, are they allowed to participate?
If your school could have an athletic trainer full time for games and practices do you think that it is to the benefit of the athlete and their parents to pay a few more dollars in athletic fees?
References
Buote, B.J. (2004, April 29). School fees for activities may increase. The Boston
Globe. Retrieved September 17, 2006, from
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/mcas/articles/2004/04/29/school_fees_for
_activities_may_increase/?page=2.
Work begun to improve district form. (2006, September 14). The Tri-Valley Herald, Valley p. 1-2.
posted by Kim @ 12:03 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
To all,
Did you know that Fresno Pacific has a student athlete fee? Each student athlete must pay about $130 per year to play their sport here at FPU. This money is used to help offset the costs of athletic insurance premiums. I think many of the student athletes don't even realize that they are playing this fee because it may come out of the scholarship. So, this issue is not just a K-12 issue. I wonder if other small colleges do the same thing? Does the community college have fees associated with athletics? Is this a fair thing for the student athletes?
Just my $0.02
Art-
You are very lucky that you have such strong support from boosters and alumni. On the flip side, there would be no way that our sports could survive without charging those fees. Again, it goes to offset what the district cut, equipment, uniforms, field maintenance, etc. Most of our teams have fundraising events so that they can have nicer uniforms, purchase more or better equipment, hire additional coaches, etc. Our football team has some great fundraising events and raises over $50,000 additional. Unfortunately I think no matter which way you look at it, athletes are going to be lost. Some of the team fundraising goes toward paying for athletes who may not be able to afford to play and are granted a "scholarship". Does your school provide an athletic trainer for the sports?
Jim-
I was going to bring up the disucssion of athletes paying in college but I decided that it may take me in too many other directions. We musn't forget that at most colleges there is also an athletic fee that is charged to the student body. How many students never even attempt to attend an athletic event. Should that fee then be waived or would it throw a monkey wrench into the budget for the athletics department or school?
Rachelle-
It was very hard for me to take a stand on one side or the other. I think that the students should be able to play for no fee at all. However, as in our district, there would not be any teams because we would have nothing to fund them with. Since I feel that it is important for the students to be able to experience it and participate in something that they enjoy, I can't help but to agree with the decision that was made by the school. The increase that was made to compensate for me on campus was very minimal. The parents really didn't even know that there was an increase to compensate the contracted fee until they were told! As Art stated, it is sad that your AD will not let you fundraise to provide more for your athletes. I think that as long as it were in no way harmful to the students, then it should be left up to the coaches to take on that challenge. Maybe obtain the AD's approval of teh fundraiser prior to. I can undertsand that they want all the sports to feel as though they are equal, but if you are willing to better the team, then why not?
Art-
I am not sure how the fundraising would be received by the parents. I think that it is looked at as much less work to just pay the fee. I have had many parents tell me that when something comes home for a fundraising event, they would rather just "write a check" and not have to hassle with getting their son or daughter to make the effort to sell whatever it is that they are being asked to sell, join efforts to work on an event, etc. Maybe it is the parents that need the motivation! Since you do have an athletic trainer on campus, where does the money come from to pay that person? Does each sport have to kick over a certain dollar amount to be able to have that person on campus?
Shari-
I am very jealous of your situation!!! I think that it is great that a school can have such a good financial situation that it does not have to worry about where the next dollar will come from. Where does all of the money come from? I know that we have heard the oil story before, but is it really a never ending pot of gold? Do some of the sports still do some fundraising? What values does that show the students if everything is just handed to them? Do they then come to "expect" things and take things for granted?
Hey Kim,
Your topic hit home for me and my family. I'm one of those parents. One of those parents who each year, since my two have shown a vested interest in club ball, travel leagues, and competitive squads, i've shelled out "big-time" dollars yearly so that my two can participate in these types of activities. (Please note I am also one of those parents whose children must obtain a 3.0 or higher in order to participate.) Each year the fees to play and the costs for attire continue to grow. Your question on families having to pay for their child to play and shouldn't these fees be a part of the educational experience is one i've pondered for years. I'm thankful to fundraising. Fellow teamparents yearly express their discontenment, some of these parents fundraise year round so that their child has the funds to play for the next year. And what about those families who even if they did hustle still couldn't afford for their child to play? Who's really be played here?
While coaching high school sports, we too relied of fundraising for equipment, gear, a shared uncertified athletic trainer, and uniforms. I did not enjoy this part of coaching and I especially did not like having the girls have to worry about bringing dollars into the program, but it was the only means of getting the things and services that we needed. I would haved loved to have a "certified" trainer full-time. That whole hit-or-miss thing didn't wash... the trainer was never around when you needed them most. I'm glad I had training in first-aid. I am sure the parents would have felt much better with a person who had a lot more training. I know i would have!
It would be a dream come true if all schools in California did not have to ask parents to foot the bill for their child to play. (I'm still crossing my fingers.)
Kim, great issue, but one more question: What kind of seminars does your agreement include for parents, athletes,and coaches? Curiosity has the best of me.
Great job :>
Cyndi
Hey Art,
Those parents who sign a check are (through my experiences)the same ones who sign a check again when it comes to helping out at the snack bar area. At the High School where my two attended, we (parents) were aggresively requested to put time in as a volunteer, with one kick-back - time spent volunteering meant dollars into our childs account. These dollars could be spent towards anything they needed to play the game. Trust me, it helped out. It's too bad that some parents opt for the easy way out. Teams were very vocal about thanking the parents that had to watch the game from the snack bar. I should mention, as a parent, you never were scheduled to "work" during your childs games. Yea!
Hey Art, is your trainer certified?
Cyndi
All-
I was talking to a coach today and he stated that when he was coaching years ago for a particular school they used to have a cap on fundraising set at $10,000. Of that money, 80% would come back to the sport for which raised it. The other 20% would go to the boosters. What are your thoughts about this? I guess the money could then be used by the boosters to pay the fees for the athletes who could not afford it in such a way that we do at Granada, or for maintenance of fields, equipment, etc. The one thing that the teams could not do was use th money to pay the coaches stipends.
Cindy-
Since you were a coach at one point and have experienced the fundraising, but did not like it, would you rather have had the school charge an athletic fee for that stuff? That way you could focus more on coaching and not on how you were going to get your next dollar to buy things that the team needed.
Angelo-
It would be wonderful if they would require Certified Athletic Trainers for every 3 to 4 sports. That is however, VERY unrealistic. Most colleges have at least one Certified Athletic Trainer. Most of the bigger institutions have an assistant, maybe some graduate assistants, and even some students. Recently the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) changed their standards and the institutions have to be Accredited. This has decreased the number of students coming into our field. On the other hand, your athletes also have to understand that they are used to the way that the athletic trainers tape and treat at your school. Just because they may not care for the tape job of another athletic trainer does NOT mean that the indivudal is taping improperly. I tell my students this all the time!!!
As far as the fees... I think that it is great that you give your athletes the option to fundraise so that their fees can be waived. It shows them more responsibility as an adult and teaches them that sometimes things don't always come for free.
All-
As I said before, our athletic fee that each student is charged to play a sport does not go towards the extras such as sweats, sweatshirts, jackets, shoes, shinguards, etc. It goes toward the bus fees, uniforms, and necessary equipment for the school to have a sport. Some of it is offset by fundraising that is done by each sport. Often times the parents are not only shelling out money for their child to play, but then they have to shell out more for the added "extras" that the team may be getting if each athlete can afford it. As sad as it may be, this is how the district runs their athletics programs. Without the fees, there would be no athletics and the students would have to find other means, such as clubs, to participate in something that they enjoy.
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