Parents Feel Pay to Play Limits Opportunities

Yesterday we posted about the 's pay to participate requirement correlating with decreased student enrollment in sports. Many of our readers took the time to weigh in with thoughtful responses that created a common thread. While the individual parents of student athletes chose not to give specific details about their children, here are some of their comments (and those of others) from the Shelton Patch Facebook page:

Brian Photos

Sad actually. They tell you keep your kids active and get them involved and etc. But then everything is upping in cost so badly that many kids get left out.

Jami Foltz

McDonald Since I have three children, the pay to play has made my youngest have to "sit out" of extra curricular activities so her sisters can do the sports they love. Even with the cap, people with multiple children should not have to sacrifice one for another.

Thomas Harbinson

It may say "co-curricular" on the pay schedule, but by only allowing participation if payment is made, then it's "extra" curricular. An "extra" is something un-required for the educational degree being awarded. To suggest that athletics, drama, music, etc are not valued for the educational experience in it's entirety and are instead simply an "extra", is short-sighted by the Board of Education. It should not be required that someone pay a fee in order to participate in receiving a full and well-rounded education, especially at the 7th or 8th grade level when the student should have wide opportunity to explore what interests them, and then follow onward to develop what maintains their attention and further develops their talents.

Remy Steiner Kocurek

The message the "city" is sending is that playing sports only benefits the child playing... not the town, not the community, not the school, not the other athletes. Sports can be an integral part of kids becoming the best citizens they can be, helping us all. If you believe in public education, I don't see how you can sever sports and other activities from the educational experience and treat them differently. Besides, most parents of student athletes will tell you that their kids' grades are better during the sport season. I don't hear anyone arguing against the importance of good grades and achieving whatever the child's personal best might be. Heck, even SIS is now calling the clusters, TEAMS. Hmmmmmmm.

Mike Kellett

We have to make small sacrifices in order to pay the additional $600 per year. I feel very luck that I can afford to have my kids involved in sports and I know there are families that have to decide between sports and paying bills. It is not right. With so many wrong choices for kids to make now a days, this is not a good time to start billing them for making a good choice.... I believe sports help to keep students focused on school and out of trouble during the school year. Creation of the $helton to pay to play Gael$ was a mistake.

Teresa Gallagher

‎"The message the "city" is sending is that playing sports only benefits the child playing... not the town, not the community, not the school, not the other athletes."" -- I actually agree with that message. I don't buy the idea that playing sports outside of school helps the town as a whole, or that people who play sports are somehow better people. That's just rationalizing (they used to say, "Play sports, not drugs" but of course the kids playing sports were doing lots of drugs, the parents just wouldn't believe it). Playing sports is a privilege and it can be fun for the kids. Sure it's healthy to get some exercise, but if the taxpayers are paying for sports on those grounds, then I want the government to pay for anything I buy that would help my kids exercise. Why should the taxpayers fund only activities popular with certain people? Education is not getting some form of a ball into some form of a goal.