Pay More to Play or Terminate the Program?

By Robert F. Kanaby, NFHS Executive Director and Ron Laird, NFHS President

Everything costs money these days. But should a paycheck be a rite of passage to playing high school sports?

With high schools having to crunch budgets and scrape for funding, they are often faced with some tough choices. Among those, do they eliminate some programs altogether? Or, do they ask students to come up with the cash to fund them?

More and more, athletic programs are turning to "pay-to-play" to address this problem. This method of funding high school athletic programs is addressed in an article beginning on page 10.

When budgets began to shrink in the 1970s, pay-to-play fees, or participation fees, emerged. A 2004 USA Today survey revealed that 34 state high school associations reported that at least some school districts in their respective states were charging students to play sports. As pay-to-play policies have become more and more commonplace, a growing concern among parents, students and school officials has emerged.

It should be noted, however, that "pay-to-play" is somewhat of a misnomer. A more accurate description might be "pay-to-par-ticipate," which would suggest that such fees would only guarantee the student a spot on a roster, but not necessarily playing time.

Around the country, it is not uncommon for parents to pay $75 to $100 for their child's participation in a sport or other cocurricular activity. As a means of defraying those expenses, fees sometimes are capped when a family has several children involved in sports. In addition, scholarships often are made available and fees can be waived if the student is eligible for financial aid.

Nonetheless, some students are still dealing with an expensive price tag attached to their favorite sport. For example, a family in the River View School District in Warsaw, Ohio, might have to pay $1,350 to be included in the sports program. Caps on the amount a family is required to pay may help ease the financial pain, but may not always completely resolve the problem.

High school sports have always been a positive influence on young adults. Not only do sports enable them to participate in rewarding programs, but they also teach them lifelong lessons such as sportsmanship, leadership and the importance of teamwork in working toward common goals.

One of the inherent problems with pay-to-play is that is goes against the very grain of what public high school sports are, or at least should be, about. Tax dollars should fund public education that provides facilities and activities programs for students.

In many instances, sports can provide an impetus for students to do well in the classroom. If they do not maintain a certain grade-point average, for example, they potentially could lose their eligibility to participate. Numerous studies have shown a strong correlation between participation in high school athletic programs and positive outcomes, such as earning better grades and realizing success later in life. One such study is the NFHS' "The Case for High School Activities Programs."

There has been an ongoing debate regarding whether or not the government can step in and prohibit schools from charging participation fees. In some states, it has.

For example, a 1984 California Supreme Court ruling determined that athletics are a part of a school district's educational program. In 1995, South Dakota decided that high school students could not be required to pay sports fees.

In some instances, paying to play can provide inherent benefits. For example, students in certain Michigan high schools receive an athletic pass to other sporting events when they participate in the school's pay-to-play program.

For many years, members of an Oakdale, California, high school cheerleading squad voluntarily paid out-of-pocket costs for custom-made uniforms with matching warm-ups. The California Legislature subsequently passed a law that does not allow participation fees, throwing into question whether or not those cheerleaders will be allowed to continue to purchase their own custom-made outfits.

We strongly believe that high school sports and activities programs are vital to both the physical and personal well-being and development of students, and that they provide lifelong lessons that cannot be taught in other settings. Supporting that assertion is the 2006-07 High School Athletics Participation Survey, which shows that more girls and boys are playing high school sports than ever, with an all-time high of 7,343,910 participants. However, when budget cuts come into the picture, ensuring the future of high school programs can become problematic, and alternative means of funding sometimes need to be implemented.