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The Cost of Access



Let’s take it from the top: the Glenelg High School boosters organization is proud of their Girls Ice Hockey team.



First and only.

Taking a moment to share something very unique to Glenelg. We are the first and only public school in Maryland with a Girls Ice Hockey team.

This team works really hard and has a lot of fun. It is customary to see them all smiling as they play and when they line change. Way to go Glads on a great season!

That’s pretty cool. But if they’re the first and only public high school with a girls hockey team, who do they play?

Truth in advertising: I didn’t ask. But it stands to reason that they are playing students from independent schools. You might call them private schools. Why don’t all public schools have girls hockey teams? 

I’m guessing there are a variety of reasons. Here’s one that comes to mind right away: cost.


Infographic from Playground Equipment Website *


A cursory online search shows ice hockey at the top in terms of cost per participant. (This particular graphic doesn’t include equestrian sports which are also quite costly.) So, while a photo of a girls high school ice hockey team in Howard County undoubtedly shows determination, commitment, and a love of the sport, it is also a photo of financial privilege.

It seems unlikely that the only high school aged young women in HoCo who want to play ice hockey live in Glenelg. Doesn’t it? So why Glenelg and not anywhere else? And what does this mean? (From the GHS website.)

Ice Hockey Club Information:

Ice Hockey Club is a private organization which is not affiliated or sponsored by the Howard County Public School System or any Howard County Public School.

So is it a team sport or a club sport? I need to do more research.

Believe it or not, I got the idea for this post because of a question I read about the National Honor Society. Apparently the NHS is a dues-paying organization and you can be dropped from the rolls if you fail to pay your dues. 

My first thought: isn’t the NHS a merit based organization? Do we really have a merit based student organization where a failure to pay could bar access?

Cost. Access. They are swirling around in my head this morning. And one more thing that’s been bugging me:

I just realized that every time I read 5 books I deserve a pizza. I have not been eating nearly enough pizza.

You know what this post on Bluesky is referring to, don’t you? Yes, the Book It program from Pizza Hut.  At some point during the last year I began to think about the logistics of this reading incentive initiative. And I began to wonder if maybe it presumes an awful lot.

It presumes that:

  • your family lives near a Pizza Hut and has reliable transportation to reach one.
  • someone is available to take the child to the restaurant.
  • the whole family is going to be able to come to the restaurant or order takeout so the honored child can get a free pizza. 
There may be very careful, extremely thrifty ways to circumvent those presumptions for families with not one penny to spare but pretty much all of them would advertise your financial status. Wouldn’t they? 

So Book It just might be a reading incentive program for students whose families can afford to redeem a free pizza. And are those necessarily the students for whom the support of reading is most valuable?

Cost. Access. Pizza.

It’s complicated.




*Yes, this is a commercial site selling playground equipment, but other sites I viewed show similar cost rankings. 

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  1. Julia A. McCreadyMarch 20, 2026 at 4:03 AM

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