Nashua went through it a few years back. Now Manchester follows in their footprints, but without the big donation that came in to cover fees for the first year.

The Manchester School District passed a budget including extracurricular user fees for the city’s schools. Pay-to-play has spread to the queen city like a disease among behives. You can read the full story about it here.

I don’t see anything wrong with the idea of pay-to-play if it’s implemented fairly throughout the Manchester school system, and to all activities that require funding. As a parent of an AAU player, we’re used to paying thousands of dollars each year for baseball training, lessons, and tournament fees for the NH Grizzlies baseball club. I understand the costs involved in fielding these high school teams.

I question how fees will be determined for families with multiple children in activities, or a child playing multiple sports. And what about the students who’s families are unemployed, or living in subsidized housing? If those players play for free, or a reduced charge, where will the money come from to pay their fees? Manchester Memorial High School has many athletes that fall into that category.

Fundraisers are a fair and easy way to generate revenue to run these programs. Some of the Memorial teams already require players to fundraise. My son sold hundreds of dollars in Crusader Cards for the baseball team. The football team also runs fundraisers already. It’s a way for all the players to contribute to the team.

-Bob Hammerstrom

Tags: activities, after, athletics, blog, bob hammerstrom, cards, city, contribute, contribution, Crusaders, extracurricular, fees, fundraiser, funds, High, manchester, Memorial, money, pay, play, queen, revenue, School, sports, teams, to, user