My intention is to put this in a package. I am going to send 1 to the DOE. I am going to also take the package to the athletic director of high schools and community centers. I am in communication with BEF. I have the intention to present a case for the directors to get something started. The footprint for 2 tables is very small. The fact that it's a sport in which you don't have to be the strongest, fastest, smartest to be a winner. The juniors would qualify to play in National Competition and even World competition. I am hoping with this forum. I will be able to present a great package
The non-profit if established would purchase land and buildings. Depending on amount of schools in an area the size of building. It would be open only to juniors. I am just a welder working on a vision.
I want to thank everyone sharing their information.
A
lot of unanswered questions and the answers should have been up front when someone clicks on the letter or in the OP and still unanswered. Noble cause, do what you enjoy, but be real --- schools across the state aren't adding pool as a class and it's not going to become a varsity sport on a groundswell initiative --- intramurals, club, a session in P.E. and only if there is a suitable place for kids to go and other some spots in larger metro areas, most places won't have pool tables handy other than bars and if it was a thing, it would already be done.
You say "DOE" - what DOE? Maryland? If so, good luck with your efforts in Maryland, but expect a hard pass if you simply "send" it and if it's just in Maryland, nobody on a school board in Maryland will care if someone from Texas gives a thumbs up to a form letter. Federal? Don't bother. You still haven't indicated where the "package" is going but sounds like it must be mostly local in nature so again, good luck with the effort. Are you the spokesperson? As the representative and going to a state education department and stranger to school boards across the state, perhaps even your own, and so forth, are you confident in your ability to be a proper spokesperson and all that goes into knowledge/background checks/real experience with pool and actual education? You need credibility, nothing has been put forth to suggest you have any.
It's a fun activity, so are lots of things we enjoy doing, but the educational benefits in the letter are the "kitchen sink" and overstated. I have educators in the family - math, physics, science, on and on - bringing up pool, or mini golf, or kicking a football, getting a puck into a net, hitting a golf ball is a good way to engage kids in a practical application of what they are learning, but that's about as far as it goes - a snapshot.
It's clear this isn't a petition - it's "please 'like' my form letter". Folks on a billiards forum are generally going to like it. School boards honestly won't care if folks on a billiards forum like it.
A nonprofit buying land and buildings? LOL, come on man, for profits aren't opening pool halls just for kids to learn pool, there's a reason. Now you're into hundreds of thousands of dollars - millions beyond one school district - you aren't being at all realistic.
Pool on tv or on the internet has little to do with whether it could or should be in a school system. We had a table in our student lounge in HS, there isn't one any more - there's a reason. We had a dozen nice Gold Crowns and a bowling alley at the university I attended in the student union and you could take both for P.E. --- all long gone for almost 30 years now. There's a reason.
IMO, spend your time in the pool community if you care about getting kids involved - you're apparently an introductory instructor on the side, get something going with a local pool hall, donate your time or arrange a clinic, make a difference, get better at your craft in the meantime and show people you can make a difference and organize a club or assist a school if it want the assistance, before shotgunning a pipe dream. Anyone who supports it will want to know and should want to know what your track record has been with significant involvement with youth pool -- if it's out there, should be some good press to be found about it all, relatable success stories, otherwise I guarantee it is and will be, "Who is this guy?"
Just a few thoughts, but I predict the above are a small fraction of the notions you'll get from professional educators, school boards and even parents with competing priorities for what they think their kids should be getting from a school's budget.
