Students at seven campuses – Bailey, Beulah, Brown-Barge, and Ransom Middle Schools; Escambia, Tate, and West Florida High Schools – will benefit from a $1.5 million, five-year project designed to promote Esports Escambia County Public Schools.
Workman Middle, Pensacola High and Booker T. Washington High – inside the city limits – will not benefit from the grant.
Esports: E is for Everyone provides militar-connected students from all walks of life an opportunity to be part of a team at seven military-connected schools within the Escambia County Public Schools (FL).
Access to coaches, equipment, resources and competitions will afford rich experiences for all students at four ECPS middle schools and three ECPS high schools. New extra-curricular Esports teams will pique interest, increase attendance, spark ingenuity, and remove physical and social barriers to ultimately close achievement gaps.
Why not the three schools “in” the city? For the record, Workman and PHS are only just barely inside the city limit. The homes across the street to the north and east of Workman are out in the county. PHS is pretty much the northern limit of the city. So, putting aside geography, what is the difference between a “military-connected school” and one that is not connected to the military. Seems like a good question for the press to ask the school district. By the way, Booker T. Washington has AFJROTC, right? One of the kids in neighborhood can’t wait to get to high school to enroll in AFJROTC on the path to becoming an Air Force pilot. Not mentioned above is that the grant is from the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity. Esports looks to be a way for the Department of Defense to recruit students to join the military. Two stories about Esports below. https://www.npr.org/2020/08/13/902073826/the-u-s-military-is-using-esports-as-a-recruitment-tool
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenzavian/2021/08/27/esportssecuring-our-nation/?sh=600cc2761954