Allen High School in Allen, Tex. is constructing a $60 million football stadium, where its teenage boys will learn the game. “Football has always been a big deal here,” says district athletic director Steve “Bubba” Williams. “It’s about tra-di-tion.”…. Yes, this may seem outlandish, perhaps a little over-the-top — especially in a country with a minor issue in public education funding! But consider that this is for a high school with a 600-piece student band that consumes 2,000 bottles of water a game.
After having lived in Texas for ten years, I can attest to the reality that to define high school football as an “obsession” doesn’t begin to do justice to the reverence with with many Texans approach autumn Friday nights. I’m also here to tell you that the state’s devotion to high school football is completely out of whack and comes at the expense of education and reality.
I’m all for tradition, but in a state facing a $15 BILLION revenue shortfall (possibly even $18 billion), and whose governor has diverted federal education funds to a Rainy Day Fund, it’s tough to escape the reality that Texas is a financial mess. We’re talking about a state that was able to balance its budget only because of stimulus funds. While Congress appropriated money designed to save nearly 13,400 education jobs in Texas, Governor Rick Perry argued that he should be able to use the money wherever (not necessarily in education) he deems necessary. If this doesn’t tell you that Texas’ Republican nomenklatura isn’t serious about education, I don’t know what will. Ah, but I digress….
Texas finds itself in a predicament. It can’t afford to buy their new Far Right-wing textbooks …and yet Allen is planning to build a $60 million football stadium? Keep in mind this is a state in which football coaches in some schools make upwards of $100,000 per year.
Texas high school football coaches in Class 5A and 4A schools (that’s 950 students or more) earn an average salary of $73,804, while the average salary for teachers in those same schools is about $42,400 (as mentioned on ESPN.com).
In its report, the Austin American-Statesman “asked every 5A and 4A school district in the state for the total compensation paid to Texas football coaches and for salaries of their highest-paid teachers, high school principals and superintendents for the 2005-06 school year.” The results? Texas high school football coaches in 27 schools earn a higher salary than even their principals. The report also says five Texas high school football coaches earn more than $100K. Ennis High School’s Sam Harrell tops the list with an annual salary of $106,004; the lowest-paid is Houston Furr’s Cornell Gray, who scores $42,300.
While the reasons given for this pay difference are varied, there is one fundamental. The school boards and, indirectly, the taxpayers in Texas value the high school football coaches more highly than even their best paid teachers.
Again, I’m all for tradition, and I love football as much as the next person. Still, when it comes to determining which is more important- education or football- no reasonable person could come down on the side of Friday Night Lights. A high school football stadium in Texas might, under the best of circumstances, host five or six varsity games a season. So how is it possible to rationalize spending $60 million dollars on a football stadium…especially in a district facing the same sort of revenue issues so many other districts are facing:
The Allen ISD Board of Trustees will have a lot to think about following Monday’s 2010-2011 budget workshop.
If the district, which has been dipping into reserve funds to make its budget for three years straight, does nothing to change its current revenue structure, it could see a nearly $2.8 million deficit next year, said Mark Tarpley, assistant superintendent of finance.
If this happens, the district’s fund balance would fall below 15 percent, requiring the district to borrow money to make payroll and could damage the district’s credit rating, negatively affecting the district’s ability to get a favorable rate on the last remaining bonds from its May 2009 election….
In order to balance the budget without a revenue increase, Superintendent Ken Helvey said, the district would have to reduce staff by 46 full-time equivalency positions. Most of the positions would be teachers at the secondary level, he said, increasing class sizes at that level from their current average to 25-26 to 33-34.
So how is it that no one seems to pick up on the disconnect inherent in building a $60 million cathedral of jock worship while Allen ISD is struggling to make ends meet in the classroom? Is not the primary mission of a public school the edumication of the children of taxpayers? High school football is a diversion, 48 minutes of entertainment on a few autumn Friday nights. Football has nothing to do with preparing children for life; that’s the job of educators…and yet few in Allen seem to recognize the glaring disconnect between their financial commitment to football and their lack of the same commitment to education.
Of course, this is Texas we’re talking about, so I’m not going to get anywhere by suggesting that Allen ISD, and the district’s taxpayers, have their priorities completely backwards. When football IS life, edumication is what players have to do in order to remain eligible to play on Friday nights. Preparing for the future? Well, that can wait until after football season, right? Except that there may not be any teachers left to do the teaching…and yet Allen ISD will have a beautiful new football stadium, eh?
Proposed budget cuts in Texas may affect “arts education, pre-kindergarten programs and teacher incentive pay,” but thanks to this voter-approved bond, the Allen student band will stay both seated and hydrated.
I understand that the bond passed to build Allen’s $60 million jock palace was a self-contained funding measure separate from any education-related issues. Still, the question needs to be asked: Does football support a school’s educational mission…or is football the real priority?
This is Texas, y’all; do we really need to speculate about what the real answer to that question is??
As if there was any doubt, Allen ISD is about to provide us with conclusive proof that high school football trumps everything…even educating children.
Let’s hope WalMart is still hiring when (or if) students in Allen graduate….
