A Blip in One School District’s Back-to-School Excitement
“Back to school” should be one of the most exciting times of year for a young person. New clothes, new hairdos, and the excitement of seeing friends and classmates that you haven’t seen for a couple months (which for middle and high school students can feel like several years). For many high schoolers, an additional layer of excitement stems from competing on their high school sports teams. Fall, winter, and spring seasons await thousands of student-athletes around the country.
However, for many public high schools — especially those in budget strapped inner cities — the excitement of school sports is increasingly being stripped away from their high school experience. In a most recent case, Oakland (CA) Public School District students found out just days before the start of school that many sports programs have been axed across their high schools. In what’s described as an effort to save $500,000 by eliminating 10 sports programs, 347 girls and 183 boys have lost access to their sport. Unfortunately, the story out of Oakland is more complex than just the money involved and the 530 athletes impacted.
Yes, you read the numbers correctly — almost two times as many girl versus boy athletes were originally earmarked for sports program cuts. Clearly, the first pass here didn’t apply a precise Title IX lens to the cuts. As the San Francisco Chronicle story points out: “The disparity raises questions about the school district’s adherence to Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits gender discrimination in educational programs and school activities.” Thus, a district spokesperson acknowledged that “when it comes to what we’re looking to restore first, it’ll probably be girls golf and girls tennis.” How in today’s world do we still see examples of blatant gender inequality? Even if an “oversight”, aren’t we past the point of allowing this type of oversight to occur?
Then there’s football, which to many has become the scourge of high school (and college) sports equity. Forget for a minute the health risks associated with football that have increasingly become impossible to ignore. Further, look past the questions around the potentially skewed impact these health risks may have in the years ahead on young athletes living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. When we just focus on the mere fact that football teams attract so many male (and only male) athletes, we’re left with an equation that means the only way to live up to Title IX standards is to reduce other boys sports to balance the scales. Ultimately, the balancing act initially triggered by the outsized numbers from football can oftentimes lead to a downward spiral that negatively impacts girls sports programs. Indeed, football remains the elephant in the proverbial sports equity room.
Another disheartening element of this story is the shadow cast by alleged budget mismanagement and accounting improprieties. As the article per Oakland’s sports program cuts painfully highlights:
“The school district has been plagued by financial mismanagement in recent years, and in December made $9 million in midyear budget cuts. A report from a state agency over the summer found problematic accounting practices that in some cases amounted to the misuse of public funds. Next year, the school district is expected to have a $20 million shortfall and an estimated $60 million deficit the year after that.”
Budget cuts are never easy, regardless the cause. Every program that serves kids deserves funding, not just sports. But when it comes to sports, it’s appalling to see high school athletes losing access given the amount of money flowing throughout the sports industry. Where are professional sports leagues, athletes, and media companies who all generate millions of dollars in revenue; and where are the corporate brands who fund pro and college sports so that consumers buy their products? Why aren’t these stakeholders of the greater sports ecosystem stepping up here to help high school sports? While budget shortfalls and accounting issues shouldn’t be excused, $500,000 is a pittance to those who spend billions to get these young athletes to buy tickets to attend NBA games, purchase NFL player jerseys, and spend money eating Doritos and drinking Coca-Cola thanks to the ads they see during MLB telecasts.
Ultimately the most disheartening part of this story is what it means for more than 500 youngsters in the Oakland Public School District. These kids have lost access to something that in a very meaningful way might otherwise enhance their school attendance and motivate their academic performance. Anyone driving around Oakland on a weekday afternoon this fall will have to wonder whether that young high school aged girl or boy walking down the sidewalk would have otherwise been on a sports court, field, or swimming pool if it weren’t for the latest budget snip. Maybe it’s time to explore other ways to support high school sports in a way that’s more sustainable and separate from the budgetary constraints school’s face today. But until then, it would be nice if there was a way to find half a million dollars across the affluence of the Bay Area to keep Oakland high school athletes playing this school year.
