Your country has a huge problem with obesity. You shouldn't be complaining about schools trying to combat that with sporting programs. Education is a broad term. If the government wants to combat social problems in youth communities, schools are the place they start.

I think sports programs are a good thing, they keep kids active and give them something to do. I often wonder about school districts that spend an obscene amount of money building a school that is really a beautiful building...why can't they build a plain old square brick building and put the extra money into computers or something....

That is the million dollar question!! I have typed 3 different answers and erased all 3. I taught and I coached... sports are needed, but they do play too big of a role in many districts. Sports will provides team building and other personal skills but they won't get you a good career (unless you are in the 1% who make it to the pros).

I used to think the same thing, until someone finally told me this a few weeks ago: at universities like mine, sports programs bring a lot of money into the school. It's not just from winning bowls and things like that. Alumni also like to see winning teams and donations often go up in support of sports teams. Alumni also provided the money for our great new arena. Of course, I go to a great university with a huge endowment and very, very loyal alumni and students. If there are schools sacrificing academics for their sports reputation, shame on them!

I think it depends on the school really, sometimes higher division schools actually make a lot of money off of sports (donations pay for uniform and equipment and they sell a lot of tickets for games). I completely understand the gist of your question, but I think the short answer is that often sports will actually create an income for the school so they continue, even if it means occasionally shelling out money for them.

Sporting events, most specifically football, are money makers despite the amount of funds that go into the support of the team. Many schools have sponsors, people who pay to advertise banners or on scoreboards. Some schools even allow merchants to "table" at events for a usually large fee (around $500 a game per table). Let's not forget merchandising (overpriced t-shirts, pens, hats, stickers, bumpers, and I've even seen a toilet seat cover)can bring approximately $40,000 yearly. The boosters club can raise the same $40,000 in food sales as well. Ticket sales for games can raise up to $45,000 depending on how good the team is and how loyal the fans are. The better the team, the more the tickets and merchandise are. Some top rated school teams have been known to receive large sums of money for the rights to broadcast the games on radio or tv( from around $1000 game). If a school invests in a sporting team, the payoff could be tremendous, even in the millions if they are lucky to get corporate sponsors. In most states money received from sponsors and sporting events are not taxed- so it's clear money for the school. If a $100,000 investment in a football team can bring $1,000,000 - that's good business.

It varies from state to state and school district to school district, but a lot of the money spent on athletics comes from Booster programs for those particular sports. I know when I was in high school, the football team had a huge Football Boosters program. Money was donated by parents, local business bought ads to go in the programs, they sold things to make money and so on. As cheerleaders, we had to use hand me down uniforms or purchase our own uniforms. We had to buy our own pompoms and any additional equipment we needed. Our budget from the school was next to nothing. Pretty much they provided us with a cheerleading sponsor and a place to practice. I guess what I'm getting at, is that not all of the money is coming from the schools, so it isn't money that could be used for other types of education.

Sports are public entertainment and have nothing whatsoever to do with education... except that students are at the age when playing games is still important to most of them, so they are usually associated.

Those are good questions. I think it's because schools want to look good. That's why at pep rallies they try to get people to be full of 'School Spirit!' ;) I personally want no part of it.

Sports have not a damn thing to do with getting an education. As far as I'm concerened it's a waste of money and time. If someone wants to play then let them do it on a community team. And in college it's even more of a waste. For one thing they're funded unfairly. Football gets the lion's share with other sports getting vertually nothing. Especially the sports for girls. I've even seen schools take money form things like the arts program and buying text books to pay for the sports teams' uniforms and the coaches salaries. On top of that they will over look if a star player does something agaist school policy, has faling grades, or even breaks the law. There's even been incidents where they protect the coaches for breaking the law. Now doe sthat sound like something you want you're school promoting?

I agree, if they want to have sports in schools, it should be totally funded by selling tickets, then the kids can get an education on how professional sports works. Not funded by taxpayers !

For the same reason so much money just disappears down the education rabbit hole....no oversight, no accounting, and apparently little or no 'paper trail' to prevent misuse, misappropriation, or outright theft. Just as death and taxes are givens, so to is the financial gluttony of public education...and their yearly hysterical squaw for mo better moneys.