Pleasant Valley High School recently decided to cut funding for the Math Club’s participation in the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC). This follows countless years of the club being funded by the school.
The change ends more than two decades of school-covered fees, leaving the club on the same footing as other PVHS clubs. “The change is bad, but it is not unprecedented. The school has required most clubs and sports to self-fund, such as football. The main reason the AMC exam was funded was because of the historical precedent that the club had been funded for over twenty years. Cutting funding to the club put Math Club on equal footing with all of the other clubs,” said AP Physics teacher and Math Club advisor Ian Spangenberg. The funding cuts are a way to budget for other projects, such as the current high school expansion.
Many argue that the school should prioritize academic clubs over the funding of building expansions. “While funding the renovations for the school is important as it expands, the school needs to be able to put a small portion of its funding on clubs such as Math Club, Model UN, and Science Bowl that allow students to thrive and set them up for their future careers,” said senior Aayan Grewal, a four-year Math Club member. The minuscule cost of funding these clubs relative to the other costs the school has to take on poses red flags for how the school manages its funds.
The Math Club takes a test called the AMC, a 25-question, 75-minute competition test where approximately the top 6,000 test takers make it to the next round. The second round is called the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Exam). This is a 15-question, three-hour-long exam where around the top 300 students get to move forward to participate in the USAMO (USA Math Olympiad). Past AIME qualifiers from PV include Shaha Bhugra, Jack Cabay and Selynna Song.
The main issue with the removal of funding for the club is because of the high price of each test. “The price for the AMC competition during 2025 was $55 per person just to register for the competition, as well as $60 per 10 students to actually be given the competition. Only two new people registered for the competition, making the cost this year to be $230,” said Spangenberg. Only two new students signed up for the test this year, which is why the price was lower this year. For the future, however, every student will have to pay around $70 their first year to take the exam. This prevents students who otherwise would have taken the exam from doing so, which could lead to the loss of a great opportunity to stand out among the math community.
The defunding of Math Club marks an end for school funded clubs and raises questions on if Pleasant Valley is putting its funding in the right place.
