priorities

Only 2.5% of high school football players receive D1 college scholarships to play football. So, while we do indeed need to spend time and attention to the rights and opportunities of these elite student-athletes (see attention given to O’Bannon case and other NCAA reforms), the bigger social justice issue at play is what kinds of opportunities are being granted to the 97.5% of kids who don’t get to the big time. Why do upwards of 10% of public school students experience homelessness in hundreds of school districts throughout the US? Why is less than 10% of our federal budget allotted to children (who comprise of over a quarter of our overall population)?  Why doesn’t every community provide high quality childcare and out-of-school programming?  Why don’t many families have access to affordable housing and just-paying jobs? And in the area of youth sports, why on earth do we empower corrupt youth sports machines to take advantage of the very same families that are victims of the aforementioned injustices? These are the glaring issues of equity facing our communities…