If there’s something the United States doesn’t seem to care about anymore, it would definitely be the importance and value of our education system.

When originally writing an article on Pitman High School’s funding contrasting between the arts and sports departments, I began to realize there was a bigger problem on a wider scale; We are not spending enough money on text-based classes.

At the beginning of writing this article and researching the topic, the best place for me to find factual information was from my school itself. Apparently, John H. Pitman high school does not have any valid copy (that I know of) of a budget report based on department. Instead, I went to the teachers who run the head of the department they are in, and asked them how much money they received from the school for the school year.

• English: $4,000
• Math:$2,500
• Science:$4,000
• FFA: $12,900
• Arts:$15,000
• Athletic: $100,000

Based on the budget report that I was able to receive from the school, the allotted budget for the 2015-2016 school year was $470,000. With the numbers given above, it’s very clear that something needs to change. The athletic department has almost 25% of the allotted budget, while math only has 0.005%? Which department will actually give a student a career? An education in math and science, or a two percent chance of getting drafted by the NFL/MLB?

“How does the school expect us to pay for all the labs that are class has to do? I mean, for one lab experiment, it costed us $250. And that’s just for my class. How does the school expect us to pay for all our labs when we’re only given $4,000?” says head of science department and AP Biology teacher Joy Esquibel.

“But then again, I understand why the school funds so much into sports.” she continues. “Because kids would not show up to school if it wasn’t for the sports programs we have.

It’s their reason for coming.”

And Ms. Esquibel isn’t the only one who thinks sports motivate children to come to school. A recent study from the University of Kansas reports that students who compete in a school sport are more motivated to come to school and graduate. By analyzing students’ test scores, attendance, and grades, it showed that athletes were more likely to graduate than a non-athlete.

But athletics aren’t the only way you can motivate a student to come to school. Will Okun, a former Chicago high school teacher, wrote in the New York Times about how he learned to motivate students to come to school: “In my own nine years of teaching, students enrolled in my photography class boast a 90% daily attendance rate while students enrolled in my English classes maintain a daily attendance rate of only 70%.”

Instead of throwing all of our money into athletics and sports, maybe we should focus on providing the right materials for students to succeed and provide a career for their future. If every class bought netbooks or iPads, or incorporated more activities in the classroom instead of sitting behind a desk and copying notes, students would be more interested in school. Students don’t want to be behind a desk, they want to learn through experience. Give them the opportunity to have that experience by funding more money into actual classes and classrooms and stop wasting money on sports when they can be (easily) funded in other ways.

If we continue to go the way we are, then more people will begin to lose interest in education. We need to learn how to properly spend our money and realize that without interest in education, there will be no motivation to go to school, which will lead to more dropouts. Don’t let this happen. Learn how your local schools are spending their (tax) money and get involved today.