ARTS or ATHLETICS?!?! I may be way off here, but it seems to me school ought to teach a person those classroom based subjects and expand the intellect and reasoning abilities of its students. To say that we should funnel funds from academic classes to support sports teams seems rather misguided. Most students will not play professional sports, but pretty much all of them will need algebraic reasoning, reading skills, and yes, foreign language skills.
Now, if this "every kid needs a second language" thing is headed to more "unfunded mandates" for our public schools (ala No Child Left Untested), I say we drop it like a hot rock. But there is a reason language education was a part of the classical curriculum: the lessons in logic, cultural awareness, bias, and the pure utility of the 2nd langauge are all highly beneficial in this "Flat World" of multiculturalism and multinational corporations.