Should schools eliminate sports?

Are schools the right place for sports?

That's the question educators, experts and parents are asking as school budgets continue to feel the squeeze. When it comes down to balancing the budget, are sports a good use of resources?

The benefits of sports themselves aren't up for debate. Participation in sports provides healthy exercise, and, as a study from Cornell University showed, can foster "leadership ability, more self-confidence and heightened self-respect" later in life.

But should schools be the organization that offers them?

Amanda Ripley, the author of "The Smartest Kids in the World," thinks club organizations, not schools, should provide sports programming. Ripley and Earl Smith, author of "Race, Sport and the American Dream," joined MPR News' Kerri Miller to discuss the issue.

Both Ripley and Smith agreed that sports are given priority in some schools, drawing attention away from education.

"If you say that school is important, your kid should not be missing class to go to travel games," Ripley said. "If you say that teaching matters, your teacher should not be missing class to teach volleyball. Your principal should not be spending half of her day, as many American principals do, worrying about getting a substitute for the volleyball geometry teacher, or worrying about meeting with the school board about who the new football coach will be."

When schools promote sports over education, they fail to prepare students for future careers, Ripley said. She studied three American exchange students who enrolled at schools in high-performing countries around the world. The students pointed out the differences to her: In their schools abroad, sports were not a part of the program. This varied sharply from their experiences at home.

"Two percent of college students receive athletic scholarship in this country," Ripley said. "If you don't have that written over your gym door in America, then you are misleading your kids. We don't have a special alternative workforce where kids can get by with mediocre math skills and thrive on the lacrosse circle — that doesn't exist."

Smith finds schools' sports budgets troubling as well, considering funds only go toward a limited number of students. He has seen fundraisers in his neighborhood for extracurricular activities like band, but not for the football team, which is fully funded.

"We're spending all this money for a minority group of young men and women," Smith said. "And primarily men."

To hear the full interview about the place of sports in schools — including how club-only sports could prevent low-income students from participating — use the audio player above.