Everybody knows that District 158 is run by biased little fiends who only have hearts and checkbooks for sports teams while the rest of the poor, defenseless extracurricular activities lie dying in the gutter—forsaken.

A lot of people seem to believe that unless you’re in California where liberals and freethinkers roam free, you’ll only be met with a world of oppressive school systems that won’t support fine arts or academic-related teams. Some are even under the impression that sports are the only funded activity in the school.

And on that same note, a lot of people would really be surprised with how well the district actually handles funding different activities. Kids hardly even take into account the economic hardship the entire country is enduring and the massive impact it’s had on the education system.

The main reason football receives 5 thousand dollars in funding is because it’s such an incredibly expensive sport. Even the most basic piece of equipment—a helmet—costs $250 apiece.

The budget for sports is entirely based on statistics; it’s calculated from how much was needed in previous years and the district tries its best to accommodate every activity possible.

Really, the main discrepancy lies with the fact that sports bring in money to the school district. If the girls’ basketball team has a home game, that money goes into the district’s General Fund. But if Speech fundraises any money, it all goes into them.

Yes, Speech team has had the same budget of $1500 for its eight years of existence, and I think that it’s absurd. But Speech Director Tom George is grateful to have what he does. Especially when he’s witnessed schools in the area like Dundee Crown High School and Jacobs High School cutting their Speech teams entirely.

“With the tough economic times that we’re facing, Speech teams are getting cut,” said George. “So I’m very grateful to have what I do.”

People really show that they have no idea what they’re talking about when begin spitting fire about how every single club deserves support from the school.

Yeah, every club is important to at least one person, but the whole process of budgeting money is not a quick one. If someone decides they really like puppies halfway through the year and starts a club, the district can’t just pop another name into a computerized list and reassign thousands of dollars for the Puppy Appreciation Club.

“As we continue to grow with new groups the funding hasn’t grown,” said George.

Smaller clubs start almost every month at this school. Unfortunately, there are always going to be some that will likely never get funding from the school because they either never ask, or they aren’t clubs that compete or require large funds.

Where academic and fine arts are truly shortchanged is where the student body doesn’t even care enough to be informed. Nothing cuts down a cause like an idiot on a soapbox.

Senior Brody Burkhart has been involved in sports his entire life. Not only has he been on the HHS baseball team for four years now with two spent on varsity, he even managed to fit in three years of basketball with his junior year on varsity. Even in middle school he found himself involved in six different sports.

On top of everything else, he decided in his sophomore year to include Concert Choir to the wide array of interests he had to balance. He’s like a less effeminate Zac Efron.

“Our choir placed seventh in the state last year at IHSA and nobody knows that,” said Burkhart.

He sees firsthand that both sports and fine arts are lacking in both finances and recognition.

“It sucks about recognition,” said Burkhart. “I don’t know much about art or what they’re doing or what band’s doing.”

How many kids have any idea about all of Marching Band’s accomplishments contained in the trophy case by the LRC? Or about the collective 200 medals earned by Science Olympiad last year? What about Speech’s sending more students to a state competition than ever?

People are willing to raise their voices in opposition to things they know nothing about, but won’t even take it upon themselves to find out about these clubs.

District 158 is a very well-oiled machine kept going by a faculty that tries to meet the needs of its students in the best ways possible. Unfortunately, the universe is not a perfect place; things cost money and there is only a finite amount in the world. It sucks, I know.

School districts are supposed to be run by those fine arts slashing tyrants and football-mongering meatheads who only have stereotypical values like in the movies. It’s making it harder for opinionated people like me to find something to raise hell about.

I guess I’m out of a job.