The High Cost of Extra-Curriculars

This story in the New York Times earlier this year came to mind when I was reading a Facebook page on the Kent School District. The Times' story is called 'The Income Gap is Becoming a Physical-Activity Divide." 

Over the last two decades, technology companies and policymakers warned of a “digital divide” in which poor children could fall behind their more affluent peers without equal access to technology. Today, with widespread internet access and smartphone ownership, the gap has narrowed sharply.

But with less fanfare a different division has appeared: Across the country, poor children and adolescents are participating far less in sports and fitness activities than more affluent youngsters are. Call it the physical divide.

With youth rates of obesity going up, this is very troubling. 

The costs of putting a child in a sport,whether in a public school or a private club sport, makes it difficult for some parents to allow their student to participate. 

The Aspen Institute found that families spend on average $1,188 per year per child for soccer, $1,002 for basketball, $714 for baseball and $581 for tackle football.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that 70 percent of children from families with incomes above about $105,000 — four times the poverty line — participated in sports in 2020. But participation was around 51 percent for families in a middle-income range, and just 31 percent for families at or below the poverty line.

A 2021 study of Seattle-area students from fifth grade through high school found that less affluent youth were less likely to participate in sports than their more affluent peers. The study also found that middle schoolers from more affluent families were three times as likely to meet physical exercise guidelines as less affluent students.

“Particularly for low-income kids, if they don’t have access to sports within the school setting, where are they going to get their physical activity?” Mr. Solomon said. “The answer is nowhere.”

So why is this happening? Some districts cannot afford to subsidize sports any longer. Or they have cut the number of sports. Then you have the very expensive club sports which involve not just money but out of town travel as well as uniforms and equipment. 

Beyond the physical health benefits, playing a sport also boosts mental health and keeps some kids in school.  

But the issue at the Kent parent discussion page was about this issue - the cost of going to an event for a kid in a sport. The parent said that a team banquet got arranged at a country club and it was going to be $50 a person. Apparently enough parents pushed back so the banquet was changed to a more reasonable location/cost. The writer was wondering how the event even got by the coach.

It’s time to review the barriers that have been built to keep poor families from participating in events that should be free. Quit asking parents to pay more to attend events meant to support and celebrate their children.

Another reader said:

Even school sports aren't accessible when we talk small, cut teams, like boys soccer and basketball. Far more kids tryout then there are spots, and the spots go to the best players, which are, of course, elite club team kids.

 

I can vouch for this happening. My son tried out for the soccer team his freshman year of high school. He came home and said all the kids that the coach knew from the club team didn't have to wear numbers but those the coach didn't know had to. And the team aligned to whoever had been on the club team. 

 

I wonder what SOFG thinks about sports. 

Thoughts?