Coach/referees

[Schamaul]

Our local basketball program is run by our county P&Rdept and teams are formed from the different schools. Our director is always apologizing for the lack of quality officials and citing lack of money as a big reason. My question is this: Has anyone been in a program where instead of paid referees the coaches officiated? An idea is to maybe do this thru age ten and pay officials for older ages. This could cut the budget in less than half and hopefully bring in quality refs with better pay. If anyone has been in a league like this please reply. Certainly anyone can express their opinion on this but Id really like to hear from experienced people if any. Thanks!