Meritocracy Is Killing High-School Sports
Athletics are supposed to be great equalizers in American life. But they’re being hijacked by the wealthy.
If you want to understand how income inequality and opportunity-hoarding by the rich can combine in toxic ways to hurt the less fortunate, you could look in all the usual places—elite colleges, housing policy, internships.
Or you could look at high-school sports.
In the 2018–19 school year, the number of kids participating in high-school sports declined for the first time in three decades. At least, that was ; the reality was even worse. Thirty years ago, the high-school population itself was shrinking, due to a short-term falloff in births after the Baby Boom. This past school year is the only period on record when high-school
