quo vadis
Legend
Posts: 50,142
Joined: Aug 2008
Reputation: 2415
I Root For: USF/Georgetown
Location: New Orleans
|
RE: Athletic Subsidies
(04-09-2018 06:39 PM)debragga Wrote: (04-09-2018 12:41 PM)quo vadis Wrote: (04-09-2018 11:29 AM)Attackcoog Wrote: (04-09-2018 08:38 AM)quo vadis Wrote: (04-08-2018 04:57 PM)Attackcoog Wrote: What do you mean. huh? High school students dont pay a fee period. They do pay taxes that support both the academic and athletic parts of the school district. Furthermore, those that attend private schools pay for the athletic programs as part of their tuition (as well as taxes to support a public school district they dont attend at all---talk about unfair). Bottom line---The cost of maintaining and running a modern primary public school district includes a cost for athletics. That money is not going to academics---which I assume is your argument at the university level. As far as college goes---If mandatory, the athletic fees are simply part of the cost of attendance---no different than building use fees.
My point is---we accept athletic spending that is not self supporting at the local school district level. Not sure why there should be an expectation that programs that are not self sustaining at the HS level will be at the college level.
-------------------
The reality is----if this issue is a priority with the student---the decision to attend a school with low or no athletic fee is completely and totally within their control.
First, there's a huge quantitative difference between HS students, whose "fees" for athletics takes the form of the taxes their parents pay, and the taxes everyone else in the school district pays even if they have no kids in school, and the specific tacked-on fees that we are talking about for G5 and FCS schools. The former are tiny and diffuse, probably pennies per student per year, the latter, significant.
E.g., in my district here in Baton Rouge, I pay about $150 a year in property taxes that go to fund public schools. That's for funding the entirety of the public school system, all aspects of it. The fraction of this that goes to buy uniforms for football players is probably a dollar or two at most. Contrast that with the hundreds of dollars a semester students at some colleges pay.
Second, there's a major qualitative difference as well. At colleges, regular students are soaked to actually fund the attendance of the athletes. E.g., at UConn, a student pays for their own tuition and books, and then is socked with a fee to help pay for an athlete's tuition and books. So regular students are incurring extra costs and debt to pay for free rides for other students. That doesn't happen in middle school.
Third, the "choice" argument is disingenuous, because it forces a student to make choices they shouldn't have to. A Houston or USF student who thinks their business or engineering program is the best fit for them shouldn't have to choose between that and paying an athletic fee, because athletics isn't a proper part of the mission of a university. It's a false-choice situation. Bad.
As for the comments about "self-sustaining": This is a damning indictment. At public grade and high schools, athletics is touted as fun, recreation activity for students, part of the Platonic ideal of developing mind and body. At colleges, intercollegiate athletics is supposed to BRING IN money. It's touted as an investment that pays off in marketing and other benefits for the university. Truth is, of course, at 90% of all FCS and FBS schools, it obviously costs way more than it brings in, which is why fees are needed. The claims about "front porch" and the like don't pan out, if they did, no fees would be needed.
I am happy to find out that USF's athletic fee is relatively low compared to some other G5 schools, but until it is down to zero, it's a bad thing.
Gotta say---I'd be absolutely shocked if your able to run a local school district on $150 per household. I know my school property taxes are right around $2K and that doesnt include the big chunk of funding that the district gets from the state (about 40% of the budget comes from state sales taxes if I remember correctly). I suspect the tax bite to run your school district is bigger than you think--as is the pro-rata cost of athletics and non-academic functions at the municipal school district level. In terms of size, collegiate athletic budgets are about 2-3% of total spending and about half of those budgets are self funding---so really, only about 1-1.5% is actually being "spent" by the typical G5 university If I remember correctly, my area's school district spends about 2% on athletics---so very similar numbers.
FWIW, my state income tax and local property taxes are about $1,500 total. There is sales tax as well, so maybe I spend about $10 a day on that, that's maybe $1,900 in overall state and local taxes combined per year, and that's to fund everything that state and local government spends on. So no way am I paying anywhere near $2k for public school alone.
Your area spends 2% on athletics? That seems strange. E.g., I just looked up New York City. Their public school budget is approximately $24 Billion per year, spending on athletics is about $27 million per year, or about 1/8 of one percent of spending.
Now athletics can cost more than that, so how is it paid for? Often, USER FEES.
In many places, if a kid wants to play high school football, it might cost $400 in registration and insurance and equipment fees to do so. BUT, who pays that? The KID does, the athlete does. He or his parents have to come up with that money, other kids and their parents - nor the general taxpayer - do not.
So while yes, high school athletics can be costly, those costs are overwhelmingly borne not by the school district, but by the athlete himself. Other students aren't socked a fee to pay those costs for the athlete, they have to pay it themselves. You don't play, you don't pay.
Contrast that with Houston, USF, or UConn, where *other students* are drained of fees to pay for the athlete's uniform, insurance, AND, not just their athletic costs, but their regular student costs like books and tuition!
Huge difference there.
That depends on where you are, in my experience (Texas) athletes/parents pay no fees. Also many school districts pass bonds for new facilities, which are paid off by, you guessed it, the taxpayers.
Yes, that's why i said "in many places ...".
But even in places like yours, where the costs of athletics - including huge $50m football stadiums - are socialized, they are spread over the entire taxpayer base.
Very different from many G5 or FCS schools, where that school's regular students are socked with a big fee, meaning they not only pay for their own tuition and books, they are also being forced to pay for athlete's tuition, books, etc.
|
|