Cutting sports could be financial loss

It rained Monday. Rained hard enough to threaten the Greater Spokane League’s ninth-grade baseball and softball games.

Which is nothing compared to the threat from a coming financial squall.

The Spokane School District, facing a funding shortfall for the next school year in the neighborhood of $10 million, is contemplating budget cuts as varied as reducing janitorial staff to closing Pratt Elementary School to eliminating ninth-grade athletics and activities.

Though it’s obvious the school board has to do something – this isn’t the federal government, after all, where budget deficits are winked at – many of the proposed cuts are painful, hewing to the bone of the educational mission.

But most will save money year after year.

Paring athletics and other extracurricular activities from the ninth grade on down won’t. In the short run, yes, but over the long term, no.

Why not? After all, the district’s budget material on its Web site (spokaneschools.org) lists nearly a million dollars in savings if extracurricular activities at the elementary, middle and high school level are reduced. That’s a lot of money, right?

Yes, but it could cost the district that and more.

How?

The state reimburses each school district a dollar amount per student. Whether the state is supplying enough is at the core of the budget debate, but that’s a discussion for others to iron out.

If it’s enough or not, Spokane receives around $6,000 per student, according to figures from the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Of course, that’s only part of the district’s funding, as federal funds and local taxes figure in as well. But the state funds are the district’s biggest chunk of funding, and their total is based on enrollment.

The problem is the Spokane School District is suffering from declining enrollment. Fewer students, less money from the state. And that’s bad. With less money coming in, less money can be spent. Cuts have to be made.

Say, to help balance the budget, the district eliminates ninth-grade sports (among other things, but let’s stay focused on this), which, according to the district’s own material, will save $300,000 next year. That’s $300,000 to the good, right?

Wrong.

If even just 50 families decide it’s important for Jill or Jack to play ninth-grade sports, necessitating their student’s move out of the district, Spokane’s schools will lose more money in state and federal reimbursement than it saved in cutting the sports programs.

Fifty kids won’t leave the district, you say?

You’re right. It will probably be more.

As parents and students realize there isn’t a commitment to financing a well-rounded educational process, of which athletics is a part, then some will chose to attend other public or private schools that understand the value of school-based athletics.

The cuts could cause the declining enrollment problem to gather momentum like a huge boulder rolling out of control down the hill. It would be tough to stop.

And more cuts will have to occur.

The school board and administrators need to consider the $300,000 spent on ninth-grade athletics and activities as an investment in the district’s long-term financial health. It’s seed money that will grow into increased enrollment – or at least help stem decline – and contribute to the survival of other programs.

If the shortsightedness of the proposed athletic cuts bothers you, what can you do?

You can get involved. Go to the board meetings; voice your opinion respectively as a patron of the district. Talk with your local school administrators; let them know how you feel so they can pass it on. Write a letter. Let your voice be heard.