Grades Don't Matter

The Rockford public high school decided to drop the GPA standard for athletes to participate in games. According to ESPN they are one of a dozen schools that made the decision to drop the GPA requirement.

Why they did this?

Rockford student that says dropping the grade requirement is why he's still in school. http://espn.go.com/

After the Rockford team decided to drop the grade requirement they had a winning record on the football team for the first time in a while. Many people think this has to do with the talent on the team increasing because guys that couldn't play before are now playing. Rockford high school argues that sports is the only reason many people at their school don't drop out.

The AD at Rockford said that most of the kids that got kicked off the team for being ineligible to play eventually dropped out of school, and got into drugs. But this move has also angered many people in the community such as athletes that are maintaining the grades. They feel it's unfair that they have to compete with athletes who are failing classes because the term for the players are student-athletes. Notice how student comes first.

Many educators at Rockford said that when they had the grade requirement they did not see a higher graduation rate, but they did see smaller athletic teams. Contrell Curry, a student at Rockford, said "A couple of my friends weren't eligible to play football last year, so they said why even bother to come to school. Without sports, I would probably be out selling drugs or shooting people."

Although many schools in California who are in the same situation argue against Rockford because they say those kids won't benefit from the dropping of grade requirements.

 As you can see this will be a widely debated issue throughout the next few years. In my opinion I think that there should be a rule that student-athletes have to maintain a C average to play sports because if there is not they will just fail later in life. The players for Rockford High now can fail classes, and still do what they love, when other athletes may be excelling in the classroom, but get cut from a sport they love because even people failing classes can play. Also this rule shouldn't be dropped for the better of the athletes getting below a C average. Many people may say that they're getting to play the sport they love, but then what are they going to do after high school. I think this an excuse for the school to win more games.

How have drugs have ruined athletes careers?
Are college athletes cheating to pass classes?