#and also is teaching teamwork leadership skills communication time management injury/risk reduction

[the2amrevolution]

Public school funding does not pay for extracurriculars. Public school funding does not pay for sports outside of classes open to all students. Public school funding does not pay for any equipment used solely by an extracurricular sports team. Public school funding does not pay for any coaching bonuses beyond the additional salary for increased student contact hours which all extracurricular sponsors should receive. Public school funding does not pay for football programs, and no amount of being angry that a sport is popular is going to make that not true.

Public school funding comes mainly from property taxes. If you live in a county where most people rent rather than own their home, the people voting on what the property tax rate and school funding should be are going to be mostly the landlords whose best interest is to keep property taxes low to maximize their profits. The landlords and land owners are probably on the county committees and boards. Their kids and grandkids go to private school, so the funding of the public schools doesn't matter.

Many states have legislation that says that the state is supposed to make up for up to a certain percentage (85% in GA last I knew) of a school's operating costs if the local government can't fund it. However, the state government is run by the same people who don't want to pay taxes, or who want to be able to brag about how much money they saved the state, so they also can't or find ways out of providing public school funding.

Funding for extracurricular activities including sports teams comes directly from parents of students, local sponsors, the coaching staff, alumni, and other mostly local community sources. The football team got those new lockers because they were donated by an alumnus. They got that new stadium because the construction company that built it is owned by an alumnus and he has it in the contract that his company logo will be displayed and included in any news about the construction. The head coach got that new pick-up because the booster club paid for most of it since they like the guy and got it discounted by a local dealership in exchange for advertising.

Athletic funding is one big pot, not divided by sport. The big sport at a school also pays for a lot of the smaller sports, or at least pays for enough that students don't have massive participation fees that would keep them from even being able to have a team.

The funds in the athletic department do not in any way impact any other extracurricular. They do not impact the school's ability to pay a home economics teacher a fair salary and to have necessary supplies for the class. They have fuck all to do with the cafeteria food or the maintenance budgets.

Blaming sports for problems caused by capitalism because you weren't popular in high school is ignorant and sad.