Everyone needs to be attending their school board meetings en masse for the next few months. IMO the vast majority of wrestling programs are safe and it will be the sports for which no revenue is possible that will be axed first. Those being possibly soccer, softball, baseball, etc. School boards are very aware of what patrons are attending meetings and for what purposes so your presence there, even if you don't speak, will be noted and valuable.

New member. Just joined 5 minutes ago so I can post. Long time reader.

Ref program Cuts. I am the parent of an ex HS wrestler and soccer player and still a big fan of all HS sports.
Cutting school budgets is a passionate issue---one than needs to be approached with study and calmness. I believe there are possible cuts in most of our school districts. The smaller the district the less the margin available. Academic programs should be the last cut--same for fine arts.

As for sports, talk of cutting the traditional sports, football and basketball, is pi----- in the wind. Those sports are especially important to the self esteem and image of the small schools and communities.

When I was in high school in the late 1950s, a big 2000 student school, our sports were: in the fall football and cheerleading; in the winter boys basketball, cheerleading and indoor track; in the spring baseball, track, boys golf and boys and girls tennis. Since Title IX many school sports programs have exploded: girls volleyball, girls basketball, girls softball, girls track, and girls golf; plus, several other sports have been started in lots of schools: boys and/or girls soccer, swimming, diving, gymnastics, dance, and perhaps others I can't think of.

I don't have the solution to the budget mess, but I do have a recommendation. First, I am a great believer in HS sports programs. What I do not believe in, and thus in my perspective, targets for cuts, are middle school competitive sports. Competitive school sports should start in the 9th grade. Participation in sports prior to that should be in park and rec leagues, sports clubs and teams (kids wrestling, club soccer, Little League, Ban Johnson baseball, etc.), YMCA and YWCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, CYO, etc. Many many such programs already exist in the local area, to include our small towns---if not, some motivated parents and athletes need to get together and start a program. Cutting all middle school sports programs will save more money than you may at first think. Its not just the coaches salaries, there are uniforms, referee costs, transportation costs, and facility construction and maintenance expenses. When my community built a new middle school 15 years ago they spent over $500,000 on the middle school football field and high tech track. If cut, middle school sports need to be cut state wide or the richer districts will keep their programs and the smaller districts will cry in their towels about the fairness. It would probably take a state law limiting state or Federal funds to support only HS sports programs.

Another item. Have read lots of comments on how to improve Kansas wrestling. I personally do not like the tournament dual format. In big tournaments, ex, the B/LW Bobat Classic, they wrestled in 2 gyms. They only had one set of bleachers in the main gym because they had 4 mats on the main gym floor. The coming and going back and forth between gyms by wrestlers and parents (climbing over each other and all other spectators) was disruptive, plus by not seeing the action in the second gym all continuity of the tournament was lost. Go back to quality tournament with not more than 12 or so teams.

The only rule changes we need to improve KS wrestling is to improve-actually implement-the current stalling rule. In Kansas the refs let the kids lay on each other for most of the match. MO refs are quicker to throw the stall call and there is lots more action. I once saw the NJ State Championships. Bottom or top, if you weren't moving in 10 or so seconds to improve your position the ref called a stall. Great wrestling and great wrestlers--probably the best I have ever seen.

Last item. Have read lots of comments on more college wrestling in Kansas. Fort Hays State is unique; it has both football and wrestling. Because of Title IX, you are not going to see wrestling added to more Kansas 4 year schools. They would have to drop an existing program to start another men's program. The one exception may be Wichita State--they do not have football. I would like to see them add D1 wrestling and men's soccer. Another possibility is our community colleges. Only 4 of our 19 CCs have wrestling (Pratt, Labette, Neosho, Colby). Why not have wrestling at Kansas City CC, Johnson County CC, Concordia CC, Highland CC, and Barton County CC--all non football CCs. An important point: there are no limitations on out of state or foreign students in the Jayhawk Conference Rules for wrestling or soccer--all other sports have limits. I recently looked at the rosters of the 4 CC wrestling teams. There was a total of 136 rostered wrestlers; 78 (59%) were out of state or foreign students. I even put this into a table below for ease of review. CC athletes do not get a lot of money (tuition and loaner books--no room and board), averages about $2,500 per year, but still a lot of money. To me the operative word in Community College is "Community". CC sports is really an opportunity for lot of student athletes in the "community" to go on to higher learning, plus participate in a sport at the college level. So, why are we spending all that tuition money for out-of-state and foreign students? To me the CCs have lost or forgotten their purpose to serve the "community". Perhaps a letter campaign to our legislators, Kansas Board of Regents, Jayhawk Commissioners, etc., to one: add wrestling to more CCs, and two: place realistic limits on the number of out-so-state/foreign athletes. OR, do we accept that our HS wrestlers and soccer players are not as good as they are in other states? CC coaches are saynig so!!

New member continued with CC table of stats

CC Roster KS hs Grads out-of-State
and Foreign
COLBY 26 6 20
Percentages 23% 77%

LABETTE 37 10 27
Percentages 27% 73%

NEOSHO 29 10 19
Percentages 34% 66%

Pratt 44 33 11
Percentages 75% 25%

Totals 136 59 77
Percentages 43% 57%

Cogitate on the numbers for awhile and see if you can rationalize why our CC are spending our tax dollars on out-of-state athletes.

Last comment this subject. Don't give a hoot about national cham[pionships for CCs--that is not their mission. Bet Butler and some of the big CC football schools will not agree with that

Sorry, can' get this to stay in a table type format.

Contrarian

Economic woes continue to batter athletics
Feb 19, 2009 | 12:21:15
posted by: Marta Lawrence

USA Today has another story about athletics departments facing the tough economic realities of the current recession. You know it is bad when Ohio State--one of the few Division I athletics programs to normally operate in the black--is anticipating significant budgetary losses.

As the article points out, smaller schools, like Ohio Northern, face an even more grim reality. Athletics Director Tom Simmons, whose department has a $1 million budget told the paper, "We're feeling it like everybody else. Of course, at our level, there isn't a lot of fat anyway."

As universities look for ways to cut costs, busing, rather than flying, becomes a much more reasonable option. But even as purse strings tighten, universities may not be able to avoid cutting sports.

NCAA President Myles Brand says he's particularly concerned for Olympic sports. "Universities are going to have to cut back; there's no question about that," Brand said. "But can they sustain, at least at a minimum level, these low-visibility Olympic sports until the economy catches back up?"

In response to:
Poster: REVOLUTION
Subject: Re: Cutting Programs

We are a large 3A school. Sounds to me like it will be Football, Basketball, Track ONLY here (volleyball for girls). If this is what our school is looking at, then how many larger schools will be in the same boat? Let alone smaller schools?
I don't think it looks very promising for wrestling in the future. However, if you know your program is going to make it through the cuts please post as our family will more than likely move where there is wrestling and baseball or at least a strong Legion team.

Joe Wilcox - Chaparral

You can come to Goodland, wrestling tradition is strong here and we have high school baseball and a strong legion program.

Coach Polansky--check your pms.

Contrarian,

Going to a CC is just like going to high school for two more years! You get what you pay for. They have their role but they are not a substitute for a four year school.

I say abolish title IX.

"Going to a CC is just like going to high school for two more years!"

and FHSU differs from a Jr college how exactly?

(Actually, I got better grades at FHSU than I did at the Jr college I went to)

No real point just an interesting comment from a FHSU grad about the inferiority of comm colleges.

Pretty good article covering the Kansas Board of Regents 2008 datebook report,


Kansas Liberty: 09 December 2008

Operating costs triple over 20 years, tuition jumps five times. Maybe KU should go to Fort Hays to take the course in how to hold down costs.

Why are costs at Kansas' universities skyrocketing?
Operating costs at the University of Kansas have more than tripled in the last 20 years despite stable enrollment figures. The rising costs are largely the result of a substantial increase in the amount of services provided at KU, combined with the decrease in state financing.

According to the University of Kansas Office of Institutional Research and Planning, the operating costs at KU for fiscal year 1988 were $204 million, with 40 percent of the funds coming from state appropriations. KU's ballooning figures were reported in a national education journal.

In fiscal year 2008 the school is at $677 million in operating costs, with just 22 percent of the funding coming from state appropriations.

But the University of Kansas is not alone in its skyrocketing operating costs.

According to the Kansas Board of Regents 2008 datebook report, out of the six state universities- the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Wichita State University, Emporia State University, Pittsburg State University and Fort Hays State University- all but one have experienced substantial increases in operating costs during the last five years.

Fort Hays State University is the sole college to experience a decrease in operating costs per credit hour between fiscal year 2002 and fiscal year 2007. Fort Hays’ cost per credit hour decreased from $249 per student credit hour to $238 per credit hour, or a decrease of 4.2 percent.

Wichita State University had the largest change, with a 37.9 percent increase in operating costs. The University of Kansas had the next-largest increase with a 28.2 percent raise, and Kansas State University followed closely behind with a 24.8 percent increase.

Emporia State University experienced the lowest increase in expenditures with an 11 percent increase.

The six state universities have increased their costs per credit hour by an average of 23.9 percent.

KU's rising costs were the subject of a lengthy feature in the current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

According to the Chronicle, in 1988, KU "contained just under five million square feet of building space. Today, with the dozens of new and expanded buildings added since, its square footage has nearly doubled. The additions include two science buildings, a fitness center complete with climbing wall (naturally), the Dole Institute of Politics building, a multicultural resource center, and a performing-arts center with a separate recital hall for organ concerts."





HOW THE KANSAS CAMPUS HAS CHANGED IN 20 YEARS
Buildings in blue are new or renovated since 1988.
Copyright 2008 Chronicle of Higher Education. Republished with permission.





Among the Chronicle's other points:

"In 1988, the university employed just under 4,000 people; today the number is 25 percent higher, the result mostly of nonfaculty additions but also 100 new tenure-track jobs."
State financing has "nearly doubled since 1988, to $150.6-million [but] the overall proportion of the university's operating expenses covered by the state has declined markedly, from 40 percent in 1988 to 22 percent in 2008. (Those figures exclude money the university spends on intercollegiate athletics, a high-profile program whose annual budget doubled over the past 20 years to about $50-million; university leaders say private donations cover those costs.)"

"The university has made up for some of the decline in state funds with greater support from private donations and from grants and contracts. But to a larger degree, it has relied on higher tuition and fees to fill the gap — and to expand its spending."
"This fall, entering freshmen pay $7,724. That is just two-thirds the cost of the other major public research universities in the AAU, but it still reflects an increase since 1988 that is three times greater than the rate of inflation."
"Fifteen years ago (that's as far back as data were readily available), energy costs [at KU] were nearly $5.2-million a year, or about $1.11 per square foot, excluding residence halls and a few other buildings. By 2007, the total expense for the same set of facilities was almost double that, or nearly $9.3-million annually, with the cost per square foot having risen to $1.61."
"The university now pays more than $25-million a year for health-insurance premiums. Over the past 20 years, the cost of those premiums has gone up by 290 percent."


In contrast, Fort Hays State University has found success by becoming innovative as a way of staying alive.

Kent Steward, director of university relations at Fort Hays, said that a downturn in the state’s economy roughly five years ago inspired Fort Hays officials to come up with ways to reduce costs.

According to Steward some of the savings the university has created include

$773,000 a year on average in energy costs by building gas-fired generators to utilize during peak usage times
$305,000 a year by consolidating various aspects of education departments
$2.5 million in the last 10 years by completing construction projects in-house, rather than hiring workers when possible
Roughly $1 million savings a year by developing online courses in-house
Steward said he and FHSU President Ed Hammond take a media tour across Kansas each year to discuss the strategies Fort Hays has utilized to lower operating costs.

“Part of the benefit of reducing our costs is seeing that students’ cost of going to school is considerably less,” Steward told Kansas Liberty. “President Hammond is always saying our university is like a business in that if you are needing more money, you can either charge more for what you do or you can serve more people, and we have tried to hold down on charging people more and have been very successful in growing.”

Bruce Shubert, associate vice president for finance and administration at K-State, said he thinks K-State has been efficient with its finances.

“We think that historically we have done all we could and continue to do so in terms of saving money on utility bills, with energy conservation, doing away with paper processes and continuing to make the administrative process as efficient as possible,” Shubert told Kansas Liberty.

Despite the large increases in operating costs, most universities did not experience similar increases in enrollment except for Fort Hays where enrollment increased by 50 percent between the fall of 2002 and the fall of 2007. Wichita State University experienced a 7 percent decrease in student enrollment.

The University of Kansas enrollment also declined with a .4 percent decrease. K-State had a small 2.4 percent increase in enrollment.
Although all of the six colleges have experienced a rise in tuition costs, when comparing tuition costs and student fees approved between academic year 2003 and academic year 2008 for the six universities, the University of Kansas comes in first for largest tuition increase with an 89.5 percent raise.

K-State’s tuition also saw a significant increase with an 81.1 percent change. Fort Hays had the lowest tuition increase in the last 5 years with a 44.1 percent increase.

Wichita State had the next lowest tuition changes with a 57.3 percent increase.

Emporia State and Pittsburg State were close behind with increases of 60 percent and 60.2 percent respectively.

“A deliberate decision was made at K-State in 2002 that in order to maintain and improve the quality of the degree and the value of the degree that we needed to invest some things and so there was a plan to increase tuition,” he said. “So there has been a substantial increase as a percentage but we don’t expect those tuition increases to continue.”

Shubert said that decreases in state aid over the years has also affected how K-State produces the adequate funding needed to pay for operation costs.

“We are not well funded so it’s a struggle for us to maintain our quality and meet our mission with the resources we have,” he said.

“State universities in Kansas have done a remarkable job of delivering excellence while remaining affordable in light of such challenging fiscal circumstances,” Kip Peterson, Director of Government Relations and Communications at the Kansas Board of Regents told Kansas Liberty.

“Tuition at our state’s universities remains considerably lower than the regional and national averages, and enrollments continue to increase," Peterson said in a statement. "This is remarkable given the fact that over the past 20 years state funding has decreased by $1,372 per student, state funding has fallen from nearly half to about a quarter of the universities’ total operating budgets, and overall state spending has grown at a rate of 89 percent while funding for state universities has grown by only 12 percent."

Governor Kathleen Sebelius’ spokesperson Nicole Corcoran, said Sebelius has made her own recommendations over the years for higher education.

“Kansas is blessed to be the home of world class research universities, four year colleges, community colleges and vocational and technical training schools, still too many Kansans find the doors of opportunity barred by rising tuition costs, room and board expenses, and textbook prices,” Sebelius said in her January 2008 State of the State address.


“My budget takes significant steps to make college more affordable. I am providing an additional $3 million in scholarship money to ensure that 2,000 more students can afford the opportunity to compete in our new innovation economy. There are also significant new state resources proposed for post-secondary education, to lower the costs for parents, students and Kansas families.”

When School Districts Join Forces, Taxpayers Win
Speaker Mike O’Neal (R-Hutchinson) has called for the Kansas Legislature to study whether it’s possible to consolidate the number of school district administrators. He cited the budget shortfall as a reason for looking at doing things “fundamentally differently.”

Four scholars with the Reason Foundation, a California-based think tank that focuses on making governments more efficient, suggest that school districts can save money by cooperating with each other in buying services and supplies.

School districts indeed might be able to share a large number of non-instructional services.

Here’s just a partial list: administrative computing and information technology systems; payroll and auditing; legal services; grant management; and staff training and development.

A district that shares services can find many benefits.A district that shares services with other units of government (or even, in some cases, a private company) can get many benefits.

Instead of having one person on staff who tries to wear three hats, a district can draw on an outside organization that has a full-time specialist.
Also, it can purchase more or fewer services (as financing allows and student enrollment requires) without going to the trouble of hiring or laying off workers.
It can enjoy economies of scale from making bulk purchases, stretching its dollars so that more of them are used in the classroom.
There are several ways to share services. A district can contract out to another for a specific task. Several districts can jointly enter into a contract with an outside vendor that specializes in, say, payroll management.

How much money could the joint purchase of administrative services and supplies save? The Reason Foundation suggests that school districts could conservatively save 20 percent of their non-instructional costs.

How important are these savings in the big picture? According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 55 percent of Kansas’s school expenditures during the 2005‑06 school year were “instruction expenditures,” meaning that 45 percent were not.

There’s some room to debate what should and should not be included in which category, but if we take the NCES data at face value, districts in Kansas could shave 9 percent off their overall spending. In 2005‑06, that came out to some $393 million. By contrast, the Kansas Association of School Boards has suggested that districts respond to the state’s budget deficit by preparing for cuts of 5 percent.

So in the abstract, there’s room for Kansas public schools to pitch in and help address the state’s budget situation.

As the saying goes, the devil’s in the details. At least two districts (USD 371 Montezuma and USD 476 Copeland) already share a superintendent, and the state is dotted with organizations, called “educational service centers,” which districts use to jointly purchase some of their services. Legislators may wish to investigate just how widely the state’s local education authorities already share administrative functions.

An across-the-board reduction in state aid would certainly stimulate school districts to investigate shared services. It would, though, have the unfortunate effect of punishing those districts that are leaner than others, while letting less efficient districts off the hook.

For that reason, legislators might wish to consider an additional option: Enlist the state’s 2.7 million residents as budgetary watchdogs by requiring each district to put its check registry online.

“Google government,” as this idea is sometimes called, is based on the idea that the best government is open government. It’s hard to tell what sorts of savings a keen-eyed observer outside the school system could find. Google government won’t be an immediate money saver, but it could promote the state’s long-term health.

______


John R. LaPlante is an Education Policy fellow with the Kansas-based Flint Hills Center for Public Policy at www.flinthills.org.

This is my first post on the high school wresting forum. For what it is worth, I started wrestling in 1975 in Belleville Kansas. From my memory, it was the first Kid's wrestling program in that community. I wrestled all the way through my senior year and learned a lot about competition and working hard.

To this day, I am sure that is why I did as well as I did in college. I coached three years of Kid's wrestling when I was in college and have helped coach another seven years since my own kids started in the Kid's program. There is a lot of hard work and dedication involved in this sport, as I know there is in other sports as well. Why cut programs that help young men and women learn the things that will make them stronger when they are adults?

We pay activity fees here (Lawrence), as I am sure that many of you do. Fifty dollars a pop, whether it is band or football, cheer leading or basketball. It stinks, but that is how it is. In the long run, I am sure it is a great investment.

Republic County, I wish you the best with wrestling. I am sure that the Bettis twins (Tony and Troy), Whitney Johnson, my older brother Tim and I, will always remember our start under Coach Decker.

Did not infer they were. They are still a very valid money saving athletic, academic and vocational option for lots of students and parents---especially in this economic atmosphere. And again, to expect some unknown Kansas D1 or D2 school to start a wrestling program is as I said, p------g in the Wind. And, to go to an NAIA school anywhere you better have $25,000+++, or be a potential Little All American athlete, plus be a gensis in both music and some academic medium so you can supplement the athletic scholarship with lots of academic financial support. How many local wrestlers do you really think will wrestle at Baker U. Yes, CCs are not Ivey league, but yes they do provide academic, vocatinal and athletic opportunities. And, the Kansas wrestling community is missing the boat if they do not press for 3 or 4 more CCs to add wrestling, and to severlly restrict the number of out-of-state student athletes on scholarship. Out-ofstaters come to Kansas for the exact reasons I have stated, sports, academics, or vocational training.

Thanks for your reply
SJA academy l0oked pretty good today at Spring Hill

Cokely.

Before you cut Title IX recommend you talk to your wife (and daughters if you have any). Need to also talk to you state champion girls soccer team, or was it a state champion volleyball team, or was it both soccer and volleyball state champions. Talk to all the players and coaches on any of the SJA girls teams. Let me warn you, don't ever get crosswise with a softball or volleyball mom---it can get viscious real quick!

Good for you at FHSU. Perhaps you matured a little at Jr College that bettwer prepared you for FHSU, and if your Jr College was close to your home you were able save a little money that heled when you got to FHSU

I attended Seward County CC while I was in high school. It was a joke compared to FHSU. JMO. I don't think we should invest in the CC's any more than we have already. FHSU has a wrestling endowment which should insure that we have a D2 program in Kansas for as long as there is wrestling. None of the CC's have an endowment and in fact most operate very loosely. When we pressed the CC's for accountability of the funds that District 1 donated they couldn't even tell us whether they had received them or not.

I do agree that the CC's should look to fill their rosters with in-state talent and as I stated before they serve a purpose. I am just not sure why we need more CC wrestling programs unless you feel that a great number of wrestlers are being left out in the cold.

My title XI statement was made because of the predominatly male audience and because it is the leadling cause blamed for the elimination of D1 wrestling programs. Women sports are NOT popular at the NCAA or Professional level. Well, except maybe jello or mud wrestling I have never been a fan of mandates.


Honestly I am having a tough time even worrying about wrestling. I am much more worried about the massive loss of manufacturing and the ability for the US to export products. It is a slippery slope that we are going down.

I love politically incorrect posts!

Dang, Cokeley!!! You and I agree on a post! The Cardinals made the Super Bowl and now this!! Armageddon is upon us.

It does bother me that Colby has continued to lose its ties to those great western Kansas kids they used to get to come in and have opted for Eastern Europeans instead much like Neosho did when they won the national title when coach Pack was still there. When you only have five wrestlers from the state of Kansas and only one doesn't hail from Colby you have to wonder if they are more interested in winning or bringing in students. Four of Colby's out of staters are within the area with three coming from Colorado and the other from Wyoming. The other guys are from manly the East Coast and the Eastern Hemisphere. To be fair many of Labette's "out of state wrestlers" are within a couple of hours with many coming from Oklahoma and Missouri. The only truly out of area wrestlers are the two from Texas, three from Florida and one from Colorado. All of the Florida kids are from the same school as the assistant coach also. Neosho also only has six wrestlers who are not within the four state area of Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Pratt has done an excellent job of keeping instate talent just hope they can keep the program headed towards greater success and compete with three other schools.

Now if only the Cubs could win a World Series!

Buy America---keep the tuition for in state student athletes. Coaches are cutting our kids short. If Pratt can do a 75/25 percentage so can the other schools!