Last summer, the fourth biggest city in New York, Yonkers, was forced to cut a great deal of teachers and almost all of its extracurricular funding due to an ever increasing deficit. While many of the cuts resonate greatly with the community, one of the most surprising was the overwhelming vitriol directed against the decision to completely cut Athletics from the school districts. It has long been argued that children who play sports often see positive external benefits of consumption from playing sports; namely better grades, better health, and the decreased likelihood of consuming drugs and alcohol. But the comment from one of the students raises another potential lost benefit:
Darius Lofton, the quarterback on Gorton High School’s football team, told the meeting, “Without sports I am not going to college.”
The cutting of programs in this city has had overarching effects on the lives of its citizens, and many of these cannot be overlooked. For these students, the lack of sports leads to a very traumatic change in their potential future earnings. The benefits of saving money do not outweigh the negative consequences, at least with regards to the sub-group of student athletes. However, whatever happened to doing your work and going to college on your own merit? Maybe he can raise his grades in the free time he has now that he doesn’t have practice multiple hours every day and games every Friday night.
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