Schools Should Cut Football To Save Money

Remember that kid in gym class who always got picked last for every game? And reluctantly, at that? Well, that was me. Keep this in mind as you read on, because I am here to say that we need more gym classes in our schools.

Almost every day we read another story about a local district faced with cutting academics or staff to stay afloat. Teachers have been laid off or will be let go in , Allentown and , to name a few. Guidance services will be cut. is going the way of traditional blackboards at many districts, and and even civics/social studies classes are on the blocks and waiting for their turn at the budget guillotine.

Yet despite all of the distress, all of the wailing, all of the complaints about high personnel costs, I have yet to hear one administrator or school board director suggest cutting football.

Football is not just a game. It is an identity to many districts – an expensive identity. When you consider uniforms, equipment, training rooms, transportation, coaching salaries and field maintenance, I’m betting that football is a pretty costly item in any school district budget.

Every game is a major event and most high schools require extra-duty security patrols for crowd control these days. Throw in the costs of lighting, turf and all the other extras that districts invest in for a 10-week series and we’re talking about some real money here.

But it’s not just football. Most high schools today offer everything from basketball to golf to swimming – and many do not even have the facilities needed to accommodate those sports. Salisbury Township School District is facing a for its . East Penn  is embroiled in a spat with a local softball league over its use of a Lower Macungie park for the Emmaus High School baseball team. And I don’t know of any district that has its own golf course, which means rental fees, greens fees, transportation and other costs – usually to field a team of about five or six kids.

If we want to change our schools and, drastic action is needed. The purpose of public schools is to educate our children. Extra-curricular sports are "extra" for a reason.

However, and here’s where we come full circle, I do believe that every school should offer and/or expand its gym classes. Gym classes involve every student, not just the athletically gifted. And in an era when study after study shows that our children are getting fatter than the national debt, they need all of the physical activity we can provide. Yes, some kids are not athletically inclined. But many schools these days have created gym classes that are more like fitness clubs, where kids can lift weights, run or walk or even cycle for health.

The important thing is that they become active, they get a minimum amount of physical activity every day, and they find an activity they can enjoy at their own pace and ability levels.

We need gym class. We need art, music, kindergarten and guidance. Do we really need football?