Right-Wing Group Calls Foul Play on High School Sports

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) A spokesman for a pro-voucher think tank says the Utah High School Activities Association needs to provide sports opportunities for kids regardless of whether they attend traditional public high school.

"Some of these charter schools, private schools and especially home schools of course don't have athletic teams," says Paul Mero of the Sutherland Institute. "And yet we have opportunities for children to be athletic in the public schools, and we should be affording kids the same opportunities [in private, charter and home schools]."

Mero says kids outside public schools don't benefit from the millions of taxpayer dollars spent on school teams. Mero's solution is to have community sports teams instead of typical varsity programs.

"You could actually have competitive high school athletics separate and apart whether it's governed by the Activities Association . . . or some other independent entity and the school could still actually use their facilities, you could still have school teams, but make money instead of spending money," Mero says.

He says the legislature should sever its formal relationship with the U.H.S.A.A. and separate the expense of competitive athletics from high school budgets.

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