What Do You Think? L'Anse Creuse Institutes Pay-to-Play for Sports

L’Anse Creuse Public Schools will institute a pay-to-participate program for high school and middle school sports, according to a report in The Macomb Daily.

L’Anse Creuse said it has implemented the fee-based sports program—also called pay-to-play—because of rising education costs coupled with reductions in state aid, according to a FAQ published on the district’s official website.

High school students at L'Anse Creuse and will have to pay $140 to play a sport starting in the 2012-13 school year. (The cost for golf is $125 with no transportation provided.) There is a two-sport (or $280 maximum) per year.

Middle school students will have to pay $75 per sport, with a maximum of two sports (or $150) for the year.

The maximum a family would have to pay is $560, and that may include a combination of high school and middle school sports.

Reduced rates and scholarships are available for students and families that can demonstrate need.

L’Anse Creuse is the latest district in Macomb County to institute a pay-to-participate sports program.

Some readers expressed their opinions on the Macomb Patch Facebook page.

"I think that it will be detrimental to the high quality sports teams that come out of LCPS," James Coller said on Facebook. "There are too many athletes who will be forced to reduce the number of sports that they participate in due to financial need within families. I think kids won't be able to just join a team to see if they like the sport either, which is where the base of a lot of teams comes from, especially in teams that have high participation numbers."

More information on the L'Anse Creuse pay-to-participate program is available on the district's website.

What do you think about L’Anse Creuse’s decision?