Ideally, education budgets would increase or at least remain intact.

However, the stark reality is that education funds are being cut to school districts nationwide.

Sadly, prioritization of curriculae to be kept and programs to be cut may indeed result in the suspension of some sports programs in most school districts.

The expense of funding competitive sports programs is high.

Perhaps district trustees will deem some sports like football as self supporting and budgetarily sustainable, while deeming other sports a drain on funds which would otherwise support academic curriculae.

One thing is clear, with education funding diminishing, educational budgets must be trimmed to the bone.

Where do you start?

Generally, school districts begin by dumping "unneeded" teachers and non-certificated personnel.

Then, if more cuts are needed, budget breakers like bus transportation are looked at closely.

Then, of course, if curriculum cuts are necessary, arts programs are usually the first to suffer the budgetary axe.

Costly mandated special education programs are generally regarded by school boards and as untouchable, despite the fact that Special Ed programs might be the single highest district expense, eating brobdingnagian proportions of school budgets.

After that, if cuts are still necessary, choices must be made between academic classes like English, Mathematics, Science, Technology and sports.

So, what should go, math, science, volleyball, soccer........?

If some sports programs must be cut, which should be eliminated and which kept?

Of course, football is the sacred cow of school sports, generating revenue from ticket sales and helping defray expenses with the help of boosters, fundraisers and donations.

It can also be argued that basketball also generates revenue from ticket sales and other sources.

So, football and basketball programs generally generally escape the budgetary axe.

Most other sports are generally considered expendable. 

But a significant fact usually ignored by adamant football and basketball supporters, is the exorbitantly high transportation and related costs of sports programs requiring trips to away games, tournaments, etc.

As a school board trustee who must cut millions from your district budget, what would you do?

SABER:  My first question is..................where are the "millions" for the schools that were supposed to be generated by the lottery?? That money was supposed to go to education - where is it? General fund so administrators can have higher salaries/perks?

Which raises another question - why do administrators need taxpayer provided vehicles and who pays the insurance/tags on these vehicles? Luncheons - need to go to a country club? NOT! Some actually get a "house" allowance. Why?  Also, why do the board of trustees of any educational entity get full health care benefits, gas reimbursement, travel allowances (food, hotel, etc)?? I do understand a small stipend, but I thought people were on educational boards because they cared, not for the perks as many of them have full time jobs and or own their own businesses that already have a health care plan.

Just some places I feel they could start cutting expenses before actually cutting teachers, classified, and student programs.

OH YES.......................The cheer leaders support themselves - pay for their own uniforms, provide their own transporation to various venues to cheer, and pay for their own food. There is NO funding for them in any budget I know of. They do their own fundraisers to have money for some of their transportation and food.

Centennial's cheerleaders usually do a car wash in August, but didn't last year from what I heard.  Their soccer team had a game against BHS earlier this month in which both JV and varsity boys and girls played at Centennial and had a steak dinner fundraiser ($12 got you admission and dinner).  These are just some examples of fundraisers that the district should encourage.

And if they do cut sports, they should get rid of the ones that don't generate revenue (golf, tennis, maybe swimming).  But leave the rest alone-frosh/soph and JV included.

The district could also look at possible incentives for students who ride bikes to school or school functions (weather permitting, of course).  A new bicycle at Action Sports may set you back a couple of hundred dollars, but they give free basic tune-ups (a $35 value) on bikes bought there.  I know this because I bought me a bike there last year.  I'm not saying the district should have to pay for students' bicycles, though.

witterpitters-

Here's something I'm not quite understanding.  Schools can send their cheerleaders 120 miles to Fresno for the playoffs, but they can't send them to a regular season road game that is as little as 2 miles away.  Centennial could take its cheerleaders to Clovis for a playoff game, but they can't travel to Frontier or Liberty (or any other school) for a regular season road game.  That's what I think is plain ridiculous.  And Centennial's cheerleaders only cheer for varsity for basketball (the JV and varsity squads cheer on Fridays and the frosh/soph and varsity squads cheer on Wednesdays).  Yet they cheered for their respective levels for football and volleyball.  I'm not trying to brag on anyone, just sayin' that if the cheerleaders pay their own way, then they should be cheering for all the teams.  Centennial is the only school I've heard of that's doing this.  And they've also forced all visiting soccer fans to sit on Centennial's home side at their stadium.  I guess its a money-saving move (and maybe it has saved them some money-the custodians only have to clean up one side of the stadium).  I guess cutting back on the little things like that can add up quickly when it comes to saving money.  One question regarding soccer or any outdoor sports played in the stadiums at local high schools:  why don't they play some games in the afternoon (after school-4pm maybe???) or maybe play some games on Saturday instead of Thursday or Friday to help cut down on lighting costs? 

Schools should offer some kind of incentives to try and get students to come to the games.  Maybe 5 extra credit points (and double that if they go to the frosh/soph and JV games as well as varsity) or something like that.  When I was a freshman at Centennial in 1997-1998, they allowed the first 50 students who showed up at the basketball games and showed their ASB cards (actually I believe its a sticker that students can purchase for a small fee and place it on their school ID card) free admission to the game.  Of course they're not going to do that in these times, but something like that would be great.

Witters asks: "..................where are the "millions" for the schools that were supposed to be generated by the lottery??"

Great question, Witters!

These are the kinds of investigations that used to be conducted by investigative journalists funded by newspapers like TBC back in the day when they made enough money to budget for investigative feature stories.

Unfortunately, those days are gone, at least for now.

Today, these issues are addressed by well-funded television and Internet news organizations with deep pockets.

Perhaps one day we will hear the real facts behind the California lottery boondoggle which was perpetrated on the public by gambling interests promising big bucks for schools.

According to my limited understanding, about 17 percent of Lotto revenue is passed along to schools, but in fact actually provides no additional monies to schools more than previously budgeted.

First, the Lotto money goes into the state's general fund where it is then "given" to schools presumably in the form of an "add-on" to the existing education budget.

However, the state's education budget is also reduced by a like amount and the Lotto revenue simply supplants a portion of education funding which has been trimmed in expectation of receipt of the Lotto funds.

Simply put, it appears the schools receive no "extra" funds from Lotto revenues.

California is not alone in embracing gambling as a source of revenue.

Many states have boarded the casino train to boost revenues, generally selling gambling to the public as the answer to funding education and other costly programs.

But the devil is in the bookkeeping details.

Perhaps someday, someone like CNN or another major news organization will look into the issue and expose the tricky manipulation of funds toward unintended purposes other than schools.

Is it legal?

Yes, probably.

Yeah, sure, gambling proponents promised money for schools, but it ends up funding other areas of government with a mere trickle - if any -  actually going toward education after budgets are cut in expectation of the gambling revenue.

So has a law been broken? Probably not.

It's just another example of misrepresented voters' measures gone awry.

The people who promote these sorts of deals are very slick, very well funded and fully grasp the method of hoodwinking the public with flim flam tactics, misinformation, disinformation and out-and-out lies and deception to get the deal done.

Is it legal to lie to folks in television and newpaper ads?

Sure, it's a way of political Amernican life.

There is no sign or even expectation that anyone is regulating or enforcing truth in advertising.

People voted for state run lottery because of the great need for education funding for disintegrating schools they were told would benefit.

Now, it takes another ballot measure to fix the bookkeeping and funds allocation problems with the original poorly written measure that prevents schools from getting the fair share of the gambling revenue promised.

Maybe if you and enough others concerned with the issue really want to fix the problem you can devote the next few years of your lives promoting and circulating a petition to  get a new and better conceived fix-it measure with provisions guaranteeing a fixed amount of EXTRA funds to schools on the ballot, or maybe you can induce sympathetic legislators to set the matter straight with a new bill.

Oh, and you'll need buckets of money to mount such an endeavor.

Good luck with that.

Witters, your point regarding school boards, officials and administrators receiving monies, cars and perks while budgets are slashed is interesting.

Curiously, you never hear about school districts' administrative salaries and perks being cut.

Proposed budget adjustments are mostly always about cutting teachers' salaries, increasing class sizes, cutting curriculae, etc.

Today's teachers in many poorer districts are obligated to pay for teaching supplies, copy paper, toner, printer ink, etc., or do without.

Often teachers provide lunch money to hungry kids from poorer families who are not qualified for lunch programs.

But the salaries and perks for school administrators grow while they figure out who else other than themselves will be forced to give up health care and retirement benefits, take salary cuts or be laid off.

SABER: I worked at the local college for 16 years. I don't know if people are aware also that the state give the college COLA money that is supposed to be passed on to the classified personnel but end up in the coffers of the "general fund" and classified are told - oh sorry no budget money for COLA. AND it is legal when they do that.  Then when budgets really are short, guess who gets layed off? or positions not filled (more work for those still there).