Five Ways to Reduce Pay-to-Play
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As we reported earlier, public education isn’t exactly free these days. State budget cuts and failed local levies have left Ohio’s schools desperate to trim costs and still maintain services. That leaves parents paying for what schools can no longer afford, including fees for extracurricular activities.
This week, Education Week suggests five ways districts can reduce the “play” in pay-to-play:
- Corporate sponsorships
- Booster clubs
- Fundraising
- TV contracts
- Hoping the state legislature changes how schools are funded.
Of course, some of those options, like #5, aren’t realistic for many Ohio school districts. And with roughly half of Ohio schools already requiring some form of pay-to-play as of last year, families in many districts have already held bake sale after bake sale after car wash.
But, as commenter “Fred” notes on our earlier story, maybe play-to-play is an acceptable state of affairs:
You can argue all you want about the importance of ECs [extracurriculars]. But the fact is as a childfree person, I’m irritated enough having to pay for your kids’ education. I don’t see why I should have to pay for them to play sports. The expense of raising children should be all on the parents.
