Air Time For CMS
Michael Jordan and the Bobcats drove the funding lane Monday with a slamdunk of a PR move, cutting one whopper of a check to help Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools fill its pay-to-play equity gap for middle school sports. WCNC runs down the details here:
CMS Schools Superintendent Dr. Peter Gorman said, “This gift will mean students can play, not just those families that can afford an athletics fee, but all students. It means equal opportunity and access.”
Team owner Michael Jordan and the Bobcats donated $250,000 to middle school sports.
“It’s really about who we are as an organization, about Michael wanting to connect back to his home roots in north Carolina. It’s about providing an opportunity that he had as a young person going through middle school and having the opportunity to play three sports,” said the teams COO Fred Whitfield.
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The money makes sure middle schoolers on free and reduced lunch will not have to pay to play.
Last year half of all middle school students qualified for that program.
More power to Jordan for pitching in, but his largess is already begging the question: What about next year? Here’s a crazy notion. How about if every kid who wants to participate in school athletics (it’s a $50 hit per sport in middle school; $100 in high school) finds a part-time job, and at that price it could be an ultra part-time one, to foot the bill? Even with the sluggish economy and high unemployment, there are yards to be cut, leaves to be raked, pets to be walked. You get the idea.
If a kid wants to play a sport bad enough to rack the time and effort to make the team, he/she should be equally willing to pay the price off the field for the chance. Last time I checked, playing sports was a privilege, not a right.
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