Update on Michigan High School Sports for This Fall - Planning on Playing
Mates,
Had a call with the local AD and he reports a few things of import. Suggest you file this under the 'we'll see' portion of your thoughts.
First, MHSAA expects to have and is planning on having a full fall schedule of sports.
Second, the word is that (paraphrasing) all creative ideas to help that happen are encouraged.
Third, as it relates to football they are going to let JV players have a total of 5 quarters of playing time per week - for instance they could play 3 quarters of their JV game and still have 2 quarters of eligibility to play in a varsity game that same week. This is supposedly to assist schools with smaller programs to make sure they can field a team.
Lastly, the schools are being told that their state revenue grants will be reduced for obvious reasons. If that number is in the $350-500 per pupil range that can be overcome hopefully by most systems. If it is as large as $1,000 per pupil drop then you are probably looking at some significant financial difficulties for many school systems.
XM
There were at least 3 deaths due to EEE in west Michigan last year, so games were moved earlier so there were fewer mosquitos out.
Yeah, I totally forgot about EEE. Seems like a gnat by comparison with Cov.19
Relative to school funding why do we just accept that an economic decline must result in our kids getting screwed by big budget cuts? Cut something else. How about prisons? Our incarceration rate is 4.5 times higher than the UK. Let’s go with their rate (release 70 to 80 percent of the people in prison) and Michigan can save over a billion bucks a year that does not have to be cut from education.
This^
People are treating kids as an afterthought right now at best, some promoting enhanced fear of them at worst. Just little germ carriers, even more dangerous because they appear healthy, ya know?
Crazy.
I'd rather play the lotto to fund schools than have 70% of incarcerated people suddenly on the street.
I am ok with it. The current mass incarceration approach has not been that effective and cost a ton of money. Let’s spend our money on education instead.
There are a bunch of countries with lower crime rates than us that have way fewer people in jail. We could let everyone vote on it. A $1 billion annual state income tax increase or we adjust sentencing guidelines to drive a 70% reduction in the prison population. What do you think would win?
Totally agree. We just gave over $2 trillion dollars to businesses and basically wrote a blank check to banks.
Why we think those institutions are more important than schools is beyond me. And schools are critical for two reasons: they educate our future workers but they also provide child care which enables people to actually work at those companies that received a bunch of bailouts. What good are those bailouts if workers can't go back to work (other than short term propping of their stocks).
I may be in the minority on a sports blog, but with schools facing as much as 20-30% cuts, sports are among the first things that should be cut. The latest Bridge article is looking grim.