Lehi Sports
School athletic programs must be self-supporting
Who pays for high school sports?
This seems like a simple question, but many people are confused about the answer. The first thing to understand is that taxpayer money, with certain narrow exceptions, is never used to fund extracurricular programs.
Or, to put it another way, the money you pay to your local school district through your property taxes does not support these programs.
Here’s how the official Alpine School District Statement of Policy reads:
“The Board of Education maintains the position that public education is free and should be supported through revenues derived from statutory school finance code and not by means of student and school fundraising projects. In its application, this philosophy holds that all basic educational programs shall receive the necessary financial support through district allocations.”
Statutory school revenues are your property taxes, so by law and practice, they are used to cover the costs of “all basic educational programs” – facilities, staff and teacher salaries, equipment, supplies and all the things needed to provide aclassroom education to our students.
The SOP further says: “Student participation in extracurricular activities (such as athletics and clubs) is an individual choice. Extracurricular programs shall be supported through individual student participation fees and through group or individual fundraising where necessary.”
So, who pays for high school sports? According to the SOP, the straightforward answer is student fees and fundraisers, which would include anyone who participates in those, be they relatives or community members.
The most frequent ways that our local teams raise money is by selling tickets, concessions or advertising, as well asmerchandise or services sold by students in authorized fundraisers such as discount cards, car washes etc.
There are restrictions on the number and type of fundraisers and all of them must be approved by school administrators. Travel requests also require approval at the district level.
The often-heard complaint is that costs have gotten so high that it prevents participation by students from families of modest means.
The first part of that statement is true; costs have gotten high. The approved district fee schedule for the 2025-26 school year allows for the following charges:
Extracurricular Fees
Participation (per program) $200
Uniforms, Apparel, Supplies & Equipment (per program) $1,900
Camp, Competition, Trip Fees
(Camps, Competition, Trip Fees may be in addition to program fees listed above.)
Camps (per camp) $500
Field Trips, Competitions, & Tournaments (per event) $200
Overnight Trips (per trip) $3,000
Annual maximum aggregate fee per student: $7,500. Maximum fee per activity per student: $5,000.
However, the second part is not true. Students may apply for fee waivers for extracurricular activities as well as for school fees and may not be excluded from teams or activities based on waiver status or nonparticipation in optional fundraisers. School principals make the decisions on waiver applications.
Of course, there are still the same costs of participation for students on waivers, so including them necessitates raising additional funds or soliciting donations to cover the shortfall.
This is an important reason why community support for these programs is necessary, as it allows opportunities for students who otherwise would be unable to participate.
