Dealing With Texas Education Budget Cuts

In response to Educating Texas

I agree that the budget cuts regarding Texas' education system are disheartening. With one of the worst public education records in the nation, Texas could use all of the money possible to increase teachers' salaries, buy new textbooks, upgrade teaching equipment and fund more extracurricular programs. However, the fact of the matter is, with schools closing and the Texas government strapped for money, the funding for schools is simply not there.

The cuts have to come from somewhere, but I don't think immediately singling out athletic programs is the right logic. While athletic programs are an expense, they are well worth the cost. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) makes The Case for High School Activities and states that, in fact, high school activity programs (sports, music, speech, drama, debate) usually only make up 1 to 3 percent of the school's budget. A number of benefits of athletic programs are evaluated as well.

First, "activity programs provide valuable lessons for practical situations – teamwork, sportsmanship, winning and losing, and hard work. Through participation in activity programs, students learn self-discipline, build
self-confidence and develop skills to handle competitive situations." These values instilled in students set them up for success later in life. Involvement in sports has been shown to decrease the number of kids doing drugs and  getting pregnant in high school as well. Students playing vigorous sports, (such as soccer and football) performed about 10% better in class, and attendance rates, on average, also increase with sports involvement.

Furthermore, I think the 'no pass, no play' law (while unethically bypassed by some high schools) overall is quite beneficial. Even if a student is not fully committed to academics, at least they are making the effort so that they can play sports. I've tutored high school students for several years, and many of their parents hired me so that they could pass their classes to play sports. The kids' involvement in athletics was more or less fueling their education.

The editorial was not just an argument to cut athletic funding, but on a greater scale a proposed solution as to where the budget cuts should be directed. When it comes to education, cutting any aspect of its funding is unfortunate. I'm not an economist or politician, but I personally think siphoning a little of every department's budget would be the best way to handle the budget cuts. Rather than killing certain programs or drastically cutting one area's budget, small cuts all around would hopefully ease the pain.

Bottom line, Texas needs to revamp its education system.