[Bill Beatty]

I have been raising this very point for years. Schools spend huge amounts on sports, but seem to have difficulty spending much on a FIRST program.

The rationalization is that sports programs bring in revenue. This is a complete myth. The small amount of ticket sales is a drop in the bucket when comparing the cost of a football team. You must remember to include all the equipment, the salaries of the coaches, managers, trainers, etc. as well as the cost to build and maintain the field etc. I would bet that the cost of an average size high school team is in the hundreds of thousands when figuring "all" the costs.

I am all for high school sports, but as Dean continually preaches, we sometimes are not putting enough emphases in the right places.