‘An incredible impact’: Poor kids are being priced out of youth sports. Here’s one solution.

As poor children around the country get priced out of expensive youth sports leagues, a volunteer baseball coach in suburban Maryland has devised a novel solution to one of many financial barriers.

It’s a small square checkbox.

Marc Berk, a health policy researcher, got the checkbox idea on vacation in New York. He noticed that museum-goers who couldn’t pay the requested donation fee had to explain why — a demeaning procedure. He wondered if something similar kept lower income families away from youth sports.