No More Free Rides At CMS?
The plan calls for charging a $50 fee per student-athlete for each middle school sport they field. Based on projected participation rates, the fees would generate $246,500. The plan also includes $100 participation fees for high school athletics, projected to raise $751,800, and for charging a $1 surcharge on tickets to all sporting events, which would raise an additional $263,000.
The district would work with outside partners to provide scholarships for eligible students who couldn’t afford the pay-to-play fees, said CMS Chief Operating Officer Hugh Hattabaugh.
Scholarships would be essential, said school board member Joyce Waddell, who expressed concerns with the possibility that high-poverty students would no be able to participate in sports programs.
“These are things that will keep them in school,” she said. “When they can’t pay, I don’t want to see because they’re poor they’re eliminated.”
The move toward pay-to-play fees, Hattabaugh said, is gaining traction across the country. Thirty-five states currently have school systems that require students to pay a fee for athletics, Hattabaugh said, including Seattle City Schools, which charges $50, and Ann Arbor Michigan Schools, which charges from $50 to $100 per sport.
The school board didn’t vote on the proposal, but several members gave it high marks. Rhonda Lennon said she could support the pay-to-play option not only because it would salvage middle school athletics, but also because it could potentially remove what is a perennial budget battle from future debate.
“We don’t have to talk about do we save or cut middle school sports again,” Lennon said. “It will be self-funded.”
Well, maybe. What would happen, asked Merchant, if the district’s revenue projections and pay-to-play participation levels came up short?
School officials expect a 25 percent drop in participation with pay-to-play; the question remains, however, of whether the 75 percent of student-athletes who still take to the field will have paid before the whistle blows.
“What if we get to Februray and we don’t have the revenue,” Merchant said. “Do we just not play baseball?”
“No funds, no programs,” Gorman said.
Hattabaugh offered that timelines would have to be put in place for when athletes have to pay before the start of their particular sport’s season.
Another pay-to-play option, which included the same fee structure and no ticket surcharge, but eliminated five of the 13 sports offered at middle schools, didn’t gain any visible support from the board.
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