Too Many Kids Can’t Afford Pay-to-Play in Ohio School Athletics

At my high school, detention is free. But if you want to make a game-winning catch that will cost you.

High school athletics are a cherished part of communities across Ohio. Including one of the nation’s most storied high school rivalries, which pits Massillon against Canton McKinley. Their football matchups have been called the OSU-Michigan of high school sports. Across the state, more than 800 high schools collectively field roughly 20,000 teams. Even though Ohio is a high school sports state, the funding model used for athletics by many districts calls into question just how much we really value all those games under the Friday night lights and on the courts and fields throughout the year.

As athletic costs rise and school budgets get squeezed, districts have increasingly turned to the students themselves and their families for a growing portion of their athletic program’s funding. These ‘pay to play’ fees for high school sports threaten to dampen participation and undermine the contributions athletics make to student success.

Thomas Worthington High School, where I attend, charges $125 per player, per sport. Anthony Wayne High School in Whitehouse just implemented pay to play this year, charging $150 with an explicit policy that if the student is injured, even on the first day of the first practice, there will be no refunds. In Reynoldsburg, the pay to play fee is $175. Neither Anthony Wayne nor Reynoldsburg offer any fee waiver for students living in poverty, no matter how extreme their circumstances. There are kids they know can’t pay, and they simply don’t care that they can’t play.

But there are districts with still higher fees. In Springboro, the fee is $260. In Pickerington, the fee is $275 — and students cannot even attend practice until the fee is paid. In Medina, the pay to play fee is $330. And the superintendent in Medina has publicly discussed the idea of doubling that number.

In almost every high school sport, the pay to play fee is simply an added expense on top of what families must already pay for equipment, training, and even tickets to watch their own children compete.

If you see sports as unrelated to education, these fees might sound like a minor nuisance. But when you look at the research on the relationship between athletics and student success, sports are actually an essential contributor to the education schools provide.

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Colorado found participation in high school athletics nourishes mental and physical health and promotes social and cultural development. What’s more, athletics participation is associated with higher school attendance and success in the classroom.

Beyond the invaluable contributions of sports to student development, there is also the value athletics have in helping high school students gain admission to college. Colleges — especially those with competitive admissions standards — want to see involvement, leadership, perseverance. All character attributes that are developed on the fields and courts and rinks and pools. High schools will do more good for more students with widespread athletics participation.

But fees not only reduce participation, they feed disparities in participation. A University of Michigan survey showed fees left low-income students half as likely to play high school sports compared to their wealthier peers. A Washington University study showed that fees disproportionately reduce minority participation in high school athletics. While the barriers minority students face when it comes to participating in sports have existed for a long time, the pay to play model further hinders students who are not white and financially well off. The inequalities in education will only continue to get worse if the pay to play model continues to grow.

Imagine if we charged fees for Algebra but made study hall free. We would encourage students to do less, learn less, and get less out of their high school years. That’s exactly what we’re doing by making kids pay to play.

While high school athletic programs are costly, their benefits are clear. School boards and the state legislature should see it is important for schools to give students the best chance at success later on in life as possible. The benefits of participating in high school sports should be available to everyone. It’s time to ban the pay to play fee.

This story was originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal and is republished here with permission.