Education vs. Extracurricular sports

[Horse with no Name]

Do you think that High Schools should partner with colleges so that it would be conceivable that if a kid wanted to graduate from High School with an Associates Degree they could do that easily?
Do you believe this should be state or district funded?
Personally, I would love to see this as an option for kids.
I would rather my tax dollars go to fund that as opposed to funding extracurricular sports activities. I think Phys Ed programs are great, but the athletics programs, to me, are a huge waste of taxpayer money.
Our coach makes double what the other teachers make and that is just not right.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. They do this in Washington.

It's called the "Running Start" program. If a student wants, and can pass a test, he or she can take courses at their local community college starting their junior year in high school.

If they take the right courses, they can get their Associates at the same time they get their HS diploma.

It's funded by the state.

There's absolutely no good reason why the state can't fund both this and extracurricular sports.

[Horse with no Name]

2. I agree.

I think a kid that graduates High School with an A.D. has a good head start on their adult life.

[ben_meyers]

3. Have it in Arizona

I have 2 high schoolers that go to HS in the AM and CC in the afternoon. They start in jr. year and get dual credit. BTW, both are varsity athletes and wouldn't trade that experience for anything either.
This also eliminates the "senior slide" my older kids did in Minnesota.

[Horse with no Name]

4. We have dual credit here in Texas

My daughter did that as well as summer school.
She lacked two semesters getting her associates degree when she graduated from HS.
I'm talking about a program that COMPLETES their core when they graduate from HS.
There are lots of kids who don't play varsity sports--yet 2/3 of a school's budget (at least here) is relative to sports.
Everyone here is proud of the one professional athlete in 30 years that this school has turned out and the ONE standout collegiate player that is playing now.
I'm sorry. The money spent to get TWO people out of this ghetto...could have got a better return by giving the kids that wanted AD's a head start in life.

[Nicole]

7. Same here

My daughter did that as well, called concurrent enrollment here. It would have been great if she could have completed a degree while doing it.
She wasted an hour each day for 2 years working as an office aide because she was too far ahead, she didn't need another high school credit but wasn't allowed to take another college class.

[itsmesgd]

5. I think that there needs to be a vocational option for non-college material

Many highschools have options for above average students to help them get started in college credit and that is just fine, but my highschool in the early 90's was focused only on the college path students. This was a slim minority of the students. The rest of the students were packed into crowded classes with old tattered books and the teachers who didnt care one way on another if the kids graduated. It was a sad thing how 80% were sacrificed for the 20%.

[Nicole]

6. They already do here

We've had Vo-Tech schools since the 1970's. Juniors and seniors had the option to attend 1/2 day of Vo-Tech as long as they had enough of their basic courses covered.

[Horse with no Name]

8. I agree with that too.

I think that varsity sports should be relegated to after-school activities funded by the people that benefit from them or sponsored by local business.
Keep the money for education--whether it is college OR vocational.
We can do better than this.
I would BET money that the amount of money spent on High School sports in Texas alone surpasses the spending of any other COUNTRY for the same.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. sports teams in high school

are often taken way too seriously by people. In the little town where I work, everyone is always ga ga over the team, and the urge to win is so strong that they let talented freshmen play on the varsity team. Sorry, but none of these kids are that talented--I mean the best of them may get a basketball scholarship to a small university, but they're not going to the NBA. Sports should be for fun, and definately should not take a huge chunk of the budget.

BTW, I'm very proud of MY high school. They set a state basketball record--they went 5 YEARS without winning a game. During that same time, they graduated about a dozen Merit Scholars and other students who were given scholarships to major universities. I think my high school had their priorities straight. Everyone who wanted to play basketball could, but the emphasis was on academics.