In our district you get approval to opt out of PE starting in 6th grade if you can prove you are training 5 hours a week in Dance or as my District told me Academy/Travel Ball who generally have at least 4 practices a week. My daughter loves PE so I won't take it from her yet nor can I as of now but, eventually I am going to want to do it so she has an extra hour to do school work during the school day since she will be spending so much time in activities.
Extra curricular activities helps to keep kids out of the bad stuff generally speaking and I believe does help the community at large. The better the districts are overall (includes satisfaction of what is offered) drives up property values helping all in the community.
If you really want to talk about something that taxpayers don't know they are paying for.... $100k a year for Activities Directors at each high school (In our district that is the case). That just burns me....this isn't a cruise ship. We also have a "Wellness Counselor" too. Considering she encouraged my daughter to lie to me, I am not all in on that one either. There is a whole lot of wasted money in education but money spent in extra curricular activities isn't really one of them.
Lie about what?