Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A modest proposal of the wrong kind

My hometown school district is facing financial problems. In order to save money, they've considered closing one elementary school, but that would create problems for students and parents, who'd be at the mercy of the district reassigning the children to other schools not quite so close to home.

An alternative option introduced as a meeting on Monday also raises red flags. Specifically, the temporary suspension of high school sports. How wrong could they possibly be?

This past fall, Troy High came within a game of winning the Section 2 football championship. They've been among the elite teams in the region over the last 15 years. Forcing them to take a year off blunts the momentum built by their 2009 campaign. Putting the athletic program on hold in order to save money isn't fair to the student-athletes involved. There has to be a compromise somewhere, but so far, the district hasn't found the right answer.

As a Troy High alumnus myself, it bothers me to see this happen. It's akin to robbing Peter to pay Paul, if you will, but there are other solutions. It's just a matter of the school board finding it within themselves to help facilitate those solutions.

No comments: