Pay-to-play gaining momentum Lancasteronline 7/27/2011

Pay-to-play gaining momentum  Lancasteronline 7/27/2011

The headlines, torn from this nation's newspapers and TV stations over the past two years, tell the story.

USA Today: With Budgets Tight, Pay-to-Play Fees Gain Currency As Ways To Avoid Cuts;

WCVB-TV5 News (Boston): School Cuts All Sports To Close Budget Gap;

Orlando 2 News (Florida): Orange Co. Schools Discuss Cutting Sports.

The long-sputtering U.S. economy continues to impact every aspect of life, and as noted in the initial installment of this series, high school sports are not exempt, nor should they be.

Still, there was a time when the price you paid to participate in extracurricular activities was measured in sweat and hard work. Now, the price is also measured in dollars.

Section 511 of Pennsylvania's Public School Code empowers local school boards to adopt rules and regulations governing athletics and all extracurricular activities, including how said activities are financed.

In recent years, only two of the 18 Lancaster County schools had participation fees. That number has risen to seven and there is reason to believe that, given the economy, it will spike again.

"It's worked well for us," said Elizabethtown athletic director Shane Piper, whose school has had a fee for six years. "It helps fill the gaps and we haven't had any issues with players or parents about playing time because the ($25) fee is minimal."

Lancaster Mennonite also has pay to play — a one-time $78 fee per school year.

"For private schools there is always a financial unknown," Mennonite athletic director Mike Yoder said. "There is no tax base to rely on. We rely on the generosity of donors to help meet our budgetary needs. Our budget mentality is for what we need, not what we want."

One of those schools that has enacted participation fees for the first time is Lancaster Catholic, which is charging its students a flat fee of $200 per school year, whether said student participates in one sport or three.

"We had discussed it the past five years but I don't think it was ever seriously considered," Lancaster Catholic athletic director Terry Klugh said. "It didn't have legs until this year."

Manheim Central athletic director George Derbyshire isn't a fan of participation fees, but he knows what the alternative is for some schools.

"Better to do that than drop (a sport)," said Derbyshire, whose school has not had to institute pay-to-play.

Stealth versions of cost-cutting are being employed by high schools across the country. These costs are often cloaked as equipment fees, donations, fund-raisers, etc.

Still, schools dealing with lean budgets have been forced to make difficult decisions.

Coaches' salaries, and in some cases their jobs, have been cut. Lancaster Catholic has eliminated eight coaching positions over the past three years. Manheim Township cut coaches' salaries in half. Columbia's coaches did their part to save money by agreeing to either take no pay or half pay which is expected to save the school $20,000.

Some athletic directors have extended uniform replacement cycles, solicited advertising for athletic facilities and have asked booster clubs to help fill the gaps from budget cuts.

The Lancaster-Lebanon League, seeking additional cost-saving measures for schools, has reduced the number of contests for junior high sports, grouped schools geographically rather than by school size, is relying on regional scheduling and has frozen officials' pay. The league has also eliminated medals for team titles and reduced medals for individual championships.

"The thing we always talk about is what will have the least effect on the kids," said Ron Kennedy, the president of the L-L League Athletic Directors Association. "We feel the steps that we've taken so far have done that."

Said Solanco athletic director Dan Baughman, "As a league we have made several cost-cutting moves and will continue to look at options to help save programs. We are trying to be proactive rather than reactive."

But it's pay-to-play that remains the hot-button issue in high school sports.

The topic surfaced nationally some 20 years ago, and based on the most recent information available, a 2009 survey published in the National Federation of State High School Associations showed that 33 states have pay-to-play.

Meaning that what Lancaster County schools are dealing with now is nothing new to many school districts across the country.

As early as 2002, The Christian Science Monitor reported that students in Strongsville, Ohio, were paying $120 per sport. In 2010, Time magazine noted that at Novi High in suburban Detroit, every athlete is charged a yearly fee of $350, even if they play only one sport.

Prior to the 2010-2011 school year, 6.5 percent of 770 respondents representing 48 states indicated they would be instituting activities fees for the first time. Additionally, 33.5 percent of those respondents who already had pay to play indicated they would be raising their participation fees.

The question is, what happens if a student-athlete can't meet the financial cost?

"We have a poverty rate of 85 percent (among the student body)," McCaskey athletic director Jon Mitchell said. "What would we do to our athletic program (with pay-to-play)?"

To many, "pay-to-play" is a disingenuous term. As athletic directors and coaches note, paying doesn't mean you're playing.

A fact that raises additional concern.

"People will get salty," Mitchell said, "if they're paying and their kids aren't playing."

Gray areas abound.

"When you talk about (pay-to-play) from a financial standpoint, you can come to one conclusion," Klugh said. "When you talk about it philosophically, you can come to another conclusion."

For now, the only conclusion we can draw is this: Sports are already a privilege. Participation fees make them even more so.

And if that's the case, then where is the level playing field?

egruver@lnpnews.com
mblymier@lnpnews.com