Getting Lansing's attention

At the Manchester Community School Board meeting last night, the board discussed possible cuts for the upcoming year. Nothing was decided, ideas were just thrown out for discussion. Superintendent Shawn Lewis-Lakin presented the board with a list of possible cuts and said that when he approached employees for ideas, they ran into a common problem. He found many of the ideas they had for cuts had already been done in the last few years. Lewis-Lakin eventually compiled a list of possibilities, but his earlier problem highlighted how strained school budgets are and reminds us that these cuts take place every year.

One interesting saving scenario presented was for the district to eliminate school sports funding. School Board President Marlene Wagner said the plan would hurt the district more than help because students would use school of choice and transfer to schools that did fund sports. She said that if something like cutting sports was going to work, many districts would have to band together and all remove athletic funding at the same time. A council member then commented that if sports were cut, people would definitely contact their state legislators.

The fact is sad, but yet, probably true. In my years in the public school system, I saw people get more upset over sports related issues. Every year I saw students that didn't have desks due to overflowing classrooms and books falling apart, but students and even parents would get more upset about a coach being fired than any of the issues that affect every student.

Maybe Wagner is on to something. School districts need to get Lansing's attention. Maybe eliminating sports funding is the way to do it.