Summary Of The Case Against High School Sports By Amanda Ripley

Amanda Ripley, the author of “The Case Against High-School Sports”, made many good points that can create much controversy when it comes to high-school sports, due to the cost and the academic problems it may be creating amongst the students. She interviewed many people who have experiences banning high-school in order to save money for their school district and the school itself. Ripley wants to bring into attention all the money that is used on high-school sports when districts tend to use a minimal amount on academics.

I have come to an agreement with her point-of-views due to several reasons: sports are the main focus of any high-school that may have sports, the tax money being provided to the school district has been used on sports than

Ripley mentions that she surveyed approximately 200 former exchange students and stated, “…nine out of 10 foreign students who lived in the U.S. said that the kids here cared more about sports than their peers back at home did. A majority of Americans who’d studied abroad agreed.” This came to my attention because American adolescents that attend a high-school seem to care more about the sports-related portion of the school day versus the academics portion which is what should be the main focus and purpose of an efficient high-school. More about the topic, Ripley states, “…in 2012, only 17 percent of the school’s juniors and seniors took at least one Advanced Placement test – compared with the 50 percent of students who played school sports.” This should be something that catches the school district’s attention because it comes to show where the adolescent’s state-of-mind is while attending their high-school. Sports seem to be a major distraction for academics and is seen as more important than academics; a large portion of students may not be involved in sports and their gateway into a postsecondary institution may be through their academics and how well they have been

Ripley talks about a specific school district that she uses as examples throughout her article, known as Premont Independent School District. Ripley mentions how this school district made budget cuts to their education, but still kept sports in the budget of their high-school. It came to Ripley’s attention that Premont is will to pay about $682 more for a football player instead of someone who is a regular student, “Football at Premont cost about $1,300 a player. Math… costs just $618 a student,” (Ripley, 2013). It comes to my attention that some school districts may not know how to manage their tax money appropriately. But, they might receive some help on learning how to do so such as in this case: Singleton was a principle for 15 years and helped other struggling schools – he came to realize that he could be saving the district a large amount of money by suspending sports, “…he could save $150,000 in one year,” (Ripley, 2013). If school districts were to come to the realization that they may not be budgeting their schools the best that they can, by having their main focus on education, they would be saving hundred-thousands of dollars per year that can used on things that the schools may