Loudoun School Board Votes for Obesity (ok, maybe not directly)

At home for fall break, I encountered many high school friends. I was shocked when one of my friends informed me that her little brother (now attending our old high school) was required to pay $200 dollars for parking, $86 per AP test, and $100 per sport season. I looked it up online to confirm and found a Loudoun Times Mirror article on the topic. Immediately, all I could think about were resulting externalities. When I graduated from Heritage High School in 2007, parking permits cost $25 per school year and sports and AP exams were funded by the school. This past year there was a $15 million budget cut for the Loudoun School system and that is what has lead to these new fees. Externalities of the 700 percent increase in the parking fee:

• Positive: Encourages carpooling, riding the bus, or walking to school, leading to reduced pollution and traffic
• Negative: Inconveniences parents who have to drive their children as a result

The $86 per AP test also has its externalities:

• Positive: may encourage more students to take AP classes more seriously and better prepare for the exam
• Negative: could act as a barrier for students that cannot financially afford to pay for the exam

The $100 fee per sport played:

• Positive: can’t think of significant ones (maybe you can!?)
• Negative: discourages many students from trying out for the team if they know they won’t be getting significant amounts of playing time.
• Negative: it will become more difficult to get student to try out for the less glamorous JV and freshman teams.
• Negative: reduced participation in after school sports could contribute to drug, alcohol, and obesity problems.

Of the three fees, I am most skeptical with the sports pay-to-play fee. While the parking fee and the AP exam fee truly charge the individuals that are benefiting from parking and taking AP exams, I don’t think the pay-to-play fee does. Like I mentioned above, not all athletes on a team participate equally and arguably should be charged the same fee. Furthermore, playing time is based on a pure comparative measure (if your friend is a better athlete than you are, then he/she gets more playing time), so it is more difficult for the individual to decide his/her fate (unlike the parking permit where you are guaranteed a parking spot). For this reason I think the negative externalities of the pay-to-play fee are much more discouraging and I am interested to see if its costs will eventually outweigh its benefits leading to a reversal of the fee.