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Currently, there are approximately 50,000 high school students on sports teams out of about 172,000 students in Maine. There seems to be a huge reaction to two, possibly three, transgender students participating in girls sports in Maine.
This battle seems to have garnered the attention of the Trump administration. Also the undivided attention of some of our state legislators and school boards.
Might I suggest that we eliminate the problem by eliminating any and all sports that we, the taxpayers, are footing the cost of, including providing the facilities, transportation to and from games, uniforms, equipment, etc. The costs of maintaining and heating all the gymnasiums alone runs into the millions of dollars every year.
Just imagine what that money could do in improving the education of all our children. It could be used to give our teachers the supplies that many of them give their students out of their own pockets. It could allow schools to hire specialty teachers who could help those students who are not athletically gifted achieve academic and practical professional skills that 99.999% of them will need to earn decent livings for the remainder of their lives.
We could ensure that we can improve the sickening fact that 1 in 6 adults in the United States are functionally illiterate if we would stop pushing children through the system based on their age. Too many are pushed to the next grade and haven’t mastered the skills needed to absorb a higher grade.
We could hire the best teachers available and support them in their efforts to teach our children the skills they need .
Thomas Bonner
Holden
