Budget Cuts

[amusedofficial]

Originally Posted by DesMoines

As has been well documented around here (I think most recently in RichMSNs retirement-consideration thread) the "savings" of this move is somewhere between $1,000 and $2,500 total per year -- depending on which state you're in and if they play G/B or JV/V double headers (and which one of us does the math).

In the perspective of an entire school budget that could be in the millions or multi-millions, it's nothing. I remember somebody comparing it to the typical property taxes paid by either one or two homeowners in their district.

Look at it another way. Spending 2.500 total per year more than you have on varsity basketball means a 200 user fee.

The school district and the freeholders or the councilors or the aldermen or the town meeting aren't willing to spend more than they need to, nor should they. It's not just 2,500 for basketball, the cuts are hitting public safety, senior citizen meals programs and the core educational curriculum. Property tax bases have been battered in many communities.

These are kids playing basketball, it ain't the NBA and it ain't NCAA. Yup, mistakes might happen, but coaches, players, scorekeepers and league commissioners make mistakes too.

Already, kids aren't playing because in many places they're being charged to play. If the schools around here can come up in another 1,000 to 2,500 from the taxpayers for a particular sport, they should use it to reduce participation fees, not indulge the know-it-all attitude of officials and their one-track-mind take on what the budgetary priorities of an educational system ought to be.