Texas high school football makes me sick

I just read this article about a $60 million dollar stadium that is being built in Texas... FOR HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL!

This is being built for Allen High School in Allen, Tex. It will have 18,000 seats for spectators, a two-tier press box, a high-def scoreboard, a indoor golf practice area and a wrestling room. This comes as part of a $119 million dollar bond passed by 63 percent of the voters in the district.

That's right, the fine people of the town, fresh off a recent state championship, thought that their high school deserves a stadium that's bigger than event the FCS National Championship Eastern Washington Eagles' home field. Sure it's a big school, the third biggest in the state of Texas, but it's HIGH SCHOOL.

And check this out...

Texas faces a potential $10 billion dollar budget shortfall which will mean millions of dollars being cut  out of education. We're talking about extra curricular activities and other educational programs that will be nixed in order to make the bottom line. Sure the 60-80 kids on the football team will have nice digs, even the wrestling and golf teams will be set up nicely, but what about the other 4,800 kids in the school? What will they do after school? What will they do during school when teachers have their hands tied behind their backs?

And it's not like our school kids are already scoring oh so high in worldwide comparisons for math and science. We're one of the dumber western countries in the world based on test scores?

Well at least we have football.

Listen, I love the sport, but there's a lot more pressing matters in this country than a game. Squandering money in a recession is inexcusable. Allen is looking at $18.4 million dollar budget cut from the government, yet spends part of a $119 million dollar bond on a football stadium? I'm fine with a field, some aluminum bleachers and a game going on.

Sure it's Texas, but that's an absolute waste.

Americans are more inclined to stick their heads into the sand (or sports) than face the real financial situations of the time. We should be focused more on educating kids and making sure they're receiving the very best education in the world. I'm all for putting money in athletics, but I'm sorry, high school kids don't need to play in a $60 million dollar stadium. This sounds hauntingly like the fall of Rome, when the empire kept their citizens entertained with gladiators while their borders crumbled around them.

"But Texas does football right"

And in the future, that might be the only thing it does as the state runs out of money and kids are receiving a sub-par education.