If at First You Don’t Succeed Lower Your Standards

People mistakenly believe that the goal of public schools is to educate children. This isn’t the case. In fact one of the top priorities of public schools is to provide circuses for local communities. What happens when continuously diminishing academic standards threaten the participation rate in sports? School boards consider lowering the standards:

The Minneapolis School Board was considering adjusting the GPA requirements to keep athletes interested in school by keeping them in sports — but they have tabled the plan because there are too many unanswered questions.

Though board members had planned to vote on the concept on Tuesday, the meeting didn’t go as planned.

The proposal would have lowered the athletic GPA standard from 2.0 to 1.0, but many board members say they simply don’t know whether the move would hurt or help students in the long run at this point.

“Many of our students slip through the cracks because of a lack of academic support at school and at home,” said Rebecca Gagnon. “National research shows that students engaged in school via student activities and sports do much better academically than their disengaged peers.”

Most school districts don’t have a GPA bar, Chief Commission Officer Stan Alleyne told FOX 9 News — but he said the 2.0 standard sets the school system apart from others in the state.

Perhaps a student with a GPA below 2.0 should be concentrating on something besides sports.