Not only do adolescent sports help with shaping positive behavior as well as building character, but they decrease the chance of obesity greatly. By participating in a sport you are actively losing weight and promoting healthy living habits. Currently, we are headed towards the situation mentioned earlier of a world with no organized physical activities because of the state of our economy. Sure there are other issues being effected by the lowly state of our government funds, such as welfare and military dollars, but we cannot forget about the fact that the money going towards schools is plummeting every year. When the tax money and other funding is not enough, the schools are forced to make cuts of “unessential” programs. School organized sports take a big hit with these actions and not the kind with a baseball bat. Most of these cuts take place in low income areas where kids need these extracurricular most. This is an ongoing social problem that if solved, will benefit kids of all ages by giving a healthy energy aversion as well as physical fitness …show more content…
Year after year, education dollars are cut by states and the schools must decide the important programs to keep. Obviously core classes will not be reduced because they are a graduation requirement and essential for college acceptance, but extracurricular activities are not. According to an analysis of the federal budget, education funding has dropped 9.4% since 2011 (Bidwell). To put it blunt, billions of dollars are being cut from schools nationwide and in dealing with these budget reductions, athletics are diluted. “At least $3.5 billion was cut from schools ' sports budgets, and an estimated 27 percent of U.S. public high schools will not have any sports by the year 2020 if the current trends continue” (Golden). This is unreal that in as little as four years school sports will cease to exist. People see this as a present issue and donate money and time to bring awareness. Club sports are created outside of schools and non-profit companies also coordinate team sports for kids of all ages. Many organizations have been created to help with this issue such as the Dick 's Sporting Goods Foundation which has raised $3 million for school sports so far because they believe that “participation in sports makes people better” (Sports Matter). Although this is a general statement and does not specify how sports better people, it shows that