‘Pay to play’ better than the alternative
By: Scott Morgan
The great irony of sports today is that while professionals are paid enormous sums to play in million-dollar arenas financed by billion-dollar corporations, student athletes increasingly face the prospect of socking away their lunch money to buy a spot on the baseball team.
It is an inevitable, if regrettable, state of affairs. Money, despite the fantasies inherent to capitalism, is a finite commodity, and it takes quite a bit of it to operate a school system. As districts face ever-starker reality and taxpayers face ever-growing bills, the solutions available to keep school sports running get fewer. At the moment, there appear to be only two find more money or dump school sports.
Within that first solution are two sub-solutions cut one program to feed another or raise taxes. But as pressure mounts from taxpayers, already forced to be the cash cow, it becomes less likely that districts will continue to ask taxpayers for money to fund sports.
Millstone schools are facing this problem right now, and the district has turned to an increasingly popular alternative to help finance after-school activities. Nicknamed "pay to play," the plan is a simple one: Anyone wishing to play a sport or participate in any extracurricular activity or club pays a fee, as they would if joining a team or club outside of school. In Washington, where "pay to play" has worked well, parents’ reaction has been mixed. Some say it is just another tax in disguise and some say it is an inevitable course, given the way the world works today.
Since it is so new, we will have to wait to learn whether fees are a practical answer to the vexing property-tax question. In theory, though, the plan is a good one, and the district is right to charge for it, if only because the both alternatives available right now are unthinkable. The state has levied strict budget caps that do not give districts much room to find alternatives to raising taxes (sometimes sharply) or dropping programs.
Of the two alternatives, the worst one is to drop the programs. Contrary to what the state thinks (the Department of Education considers sports and extracurricular activities to be non-essential), sports and clubs are vital to the growth of a student. Sports teach teamwork and cooperation. Activities teach communication. All of them provide experiences that go beyond propping open a textbook and reading along with the teacher.
While it may on the surface sound troubling that parents need to pay for their children to be part of Key Club or to be a guard on the basketball team, it is far more troubling to think that these same children may one day be told, "Sorry we don’t have any more money. Get back to your seat and turn to page 27." Those in charge of the money and that, ultimately, means taxpayers need to keep in mind that the way we educate must include the teaching of creativity and unity through non-classroom means.

