MOUNT VERNON, N.Y., July 28 (UPI) -- Student athletes in Mount Vernon, N.Y., need to raise $300,000 before school starts if they want to reinstate 55 sports teams that fell victim to budget cuts.
Lack of funds has forced the district to eliminate its $1.1 million athletic program and officials need one-third of the money by Aug. 10 in order to start the fall season, The New York Times reported Monday.
"There were a lot of other things that were cut before we got to the sports program," W.L. Sawyer, Mount Vernon school superintendent, told the Times.
Mount Vernon is among a number of school districts nationwide that have been forced to trim or eliminate sports programs, the Times said.
In Dearborn, Mich., middle school students have had two weeks cut off the season for each of their teams in order to save the district $130,000. A Catholic high school in Somers, N.Y., was forced to cut all its freshman teams until an anonymous donor sent $10,000.
