Sophomore Sports Cut at CPS

Today in Business Management I found out that only freshman and varsity teams at CPS would be able to begin practice today, and that all sophomore spring sports would be cut. I have not an athletic bone in my body but I've found myself very shaken up by this. We have recently discussed in class the importance of art programs, and how in times of economic crisis, they are usually the first to go. But sports?! For thousands of athletes? Hundreds of schools and thousands of students and employees make up the Chicago Public Schools district. If cutting Art programs is unthinkable to us at New Trier, how are thousands of talented athletes supposed to deal with finding out that they don't have practice after finding out they made the team moments earlier?

The article above states that superintendents have been abusing the state's pension system. I guess the reason why I cared so much is because there is no way New Trier would have any of this, and in reality, CPS students are not very different from us. Test scores, graduation rates, and athletics are also very high and competitive. Unfortunately, however, CPS is in a multi-million dollar deficit, and we were discussing a possible multi-million dollar referendum in weeks past. Several times this year we have discussed Illinois' policy on school funding; income property taxes determine how much money a school gets. It was hard for me to decide whether or not this was fair at first. Now, I'm even more confident that there is no possible way that it is.

Kids living so near us, especially those that depend on scholarships based off of sports in high school, should not suffer while we sit here and refuse to give to them a second thought. In complete honesty, I do not know how well Mayor Daley has taken care of CPS in the past, but I believe that more money should be spent on education.

How would you react if this happened to you? Is this even fathomable in an upper class area such as the North Shore? I came home and told my dad "We should do something." Is there anything we can do - who has to step up and take care of this? Do we truly "have a moral obligation to help people less fortunate than ourselves" (think back to the opinionnaire)?