If you get a bill from your child’s high school team, something called player fees, just know that you don’t have to pay it.
Georgia schools aren’t allowed to restrict sports participation over failure to pay dues. School sports programs tip-toe around that stipulation by making voluntary fees sound mandatory. They’re not.
But high school sports are increasingly expensive, and somebody has to pay. Families of Georgia’s student-athletes are being tapped more than ever, sometimes at a cost of more than $1,000 per sport per season.
When schools or sports teams charge mandatory fees, the policy is called pay-to-play. It has become an accepted fundraising tool in most states. In 2009, the National Federation of State High School Associations did a survey of their members and found that 33 of the 50 associations knew of schools in their states that had pay-to-play policies. The myth of free public education was debunked again.
While Georgia was not among the pay-to-play states, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey five years ago found that 38 of 68 metro Atlanta football programs that were contacted requested player fees (not always making it known that these were donations and not bills). The dues maxed out at around $500.
The GHSA doesn’t forbid pay-to-play, but a Georgia Department of Education guideline states that school systems may not charge fees for extracurricular activities as a condition of participation.
The danger in player fees is that many families construe them as mandatory and might pull their kids out of sports because they can’t afford it. But the danger in not asking for player fees is that sports teams that aren’t well-funded are often those that don’t win.
Tax dollars for education can’t be used on school athletics. The school systems typically provide a gym and a playing field, perhaps some bleachers and goal posts and salary supplements for a limited number of coaches.
Money for the rest must be raised elsewhere.
Athletic programs are supported by gate receipts, concessions, sponsorships, fundraising and, often times, player fees. They pay for uniforms and equipment, field houses, field maintenance and game officials, and much more.
So if your child makes the varsity, you can expect to pay for it.
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