When you look at state testing data one of the areas is students that qualify for free and reduced lunch. It is one of the achievement gaps schools attempt to close along with ethnic groups, special education and gender.

 

Transportation is a huge obstacle for rural areas. Distance, has money or access to cars are all other factors.

 

Then you have the programs that might be responsible for things that other districts pay for. That might be field paint, reconditioning of equipment, purchase of equipment and even uniforms. Programs that are more well off can and do provide their players with so many other things.

 

I completely get your points and agree with them to an extent. But I don't believe test scores and reduced or free lunches should be deciding factors if we're going to put a handicap on actual enrollment.

 

Imo, the rural schools that have suffered from consolidation, which in turn requires long travel times etc are the schools suffering more so than the others. Participation is down and I believe that's a big reason for it. At least when it comes to kids being able to play sports without the school providing transportation from practices, etc.

 

Most city schools are able to provide transportation or would have metro transportation available if needed. That's something that you won't find outside of select cities in the state though. Rural schools are limited in what they can do in those regards.

 

I just dont think test scores and free or reduced lunches are a good grading scale for handicapping a schools enrollment for sports. Too many other factors that should go into that. A big chunk of the top talent in the state comes from inner city schools that likely dont have great test scores or wealthy families as a whole. That doesn't mean they need a crutch to compete with the other top teams in the state though. I'd focus on the kids that cant play because their parents have a tight schedule but have a half hour ride to and from school without any bus stops.

How would those kids be spread out? And to which school? For instance schools like Newport or Holmes. Where would Newport kids go? Highlands is stacked enough already, Bellevue? Dayton? Holmes kids could go to Scott, Dixie, Simon Kenton?

I’d propose that any school that receives kids from another school has to play a level up.

I wasn’t implying using test scores to help in classification of sports. I was saying that the number of free and reduced lunch is a category used in the state for tracking students. There are criteria to fall into the category of free and reduced lunch no matter if a school system decides to feed everyone for free.

 

Travel is most certainly an issue like I mentioned before. Pike Co is an extreme but in many ways there is no good way to get to certain places past driving a long time. Other rural counties encounter this issue too which has been brought up. Rural counties do not have population density like city or more urban areas. It might take 45 minutes or more in a car let alone a bus to get from the school to a students home.

 

Some schools are viewed as bad sports programs from the outside but if individuals understood the obstacles these programs must overcome it might change some people’s views.