Pay-for-play can be a real opportunity for families

When discussions first began about parents having to pay for their children to participate in public school athletics, pitched as pay-for-play, I remember thinking I hope that never happens in our district.

As budget cuts and lay-offs continued in school districts across the state, school boards, looking for answers as how to bridge the ever-widening margins between revenue and expenditures, approved the pay-for-play option.

Stanwood-Camano School District Board of Directors followed suit last week, some members begrudgingly giving a thumbs up.

While, participation in sports in many circles is viewed as an unnecessary educational opportunity, offering extracurricular activities that burn calories and teach team building are needed more than ever.

Obesity in children has risen dramatically in the last decade. Rather than walking home or riding bikes, time after school is spent in front of computers with an afternoon snack beside them.

Children are leading sedentary and solitary lifestyles. A sport helps children stay fit, helps them find their own stride, instills socials skills and most importantly, teaches them how to work as a team to accomplish a common goal. Not unlike the adult work environment.

Granted, not everyone is a good athlete, but even bench sitters learn the same skills whether they play or not and every athlete gets to participate in track/field and cross country.

Now parents will be faced with additional expenses next fall if their middle or high school students choose to play a sport. A per student cap per year at middle school level is $150 and $200 in high school. It’s a significant hit to families especially for those with more than a few children.

On the positive side, parents have an opportunity to raise the bar and give something more important than tangible things to their children – life lessons.

To offset sport fees, parents could use this summer to get some things done around the home while teaching their children responsibility as well as money management skills.

If teens have a summer job, expect they put aside their participation fee for the sport team they plan to join. For those who will not have a job, parents could make a list of extra chores that need accomplishing around the home. Jobs such as organizing a closet, garage or attic, washing windows, staining a deck, weeding a flowerbed or vegetable garden can all have a price tag.

A parent can turn into employer, and teen into employee, a time card can be made to track the hours worked until the goal is met.

In turn, it’s a chance for parent and teen to bond; teens earn money and learn how to manage it, while being a productive and active family member.

Parents pay out slowly throughout the summer, so the hit isn’t so big in the fall, and can breathe a sigh of relief all summer long knowing what their teen is doing.

– Kelly Ruhoff

Editor