skip navigation

WIAA goes on offensive against bill that would allow private, virtual, & home-schooled students to play on public school teams

05/28/2015, 8:00pm CDT
By Travis Wilson

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) has started a petition against a recent Wisconsin legislative proposal that would allow students from private schools, virtual schools, and home-schooled students to participate on sports teams of public schools in their district. The full text of the WIAA's article, posted online this evening, is below.

Posted by WIAA:

Click to Sign Petition

Addressing Item #29 of the Proposed K-12 Omnibus Motion

Interscholastic sports are an extension of the classroom and school day specific to each respective school or district and its sport offerings. These programs are intertwined with the traditional classroom to provide an entire educational experience offered by schools for its students. This proposal threatens the nature and fabric of school-based activities and teams as educational programs. 

Education-based athletics are not community or recreational youth sports programs. The WIAA and school sports are not designed to provide the general public with programming like a YMCA or community-based recreation program. 

There are many reasons an organization of schools might have the rules as they do.  The rationale for its rules is typically based on uniformity and conformity. In order to be eligible to participate in school athletics at a WIAA member school, the student must be a full-time student at that school and adhere to the academic and athletic codes of conduct required by membership in the Association. 

All families make choices about their children's education from the vast opportunities (public, non-public, charter, virtual, home-based, etc.) afforded them in Wisconsin. With that choice, families are choosing, or not choosing, the programming provided for a multitude of reasons specific to their experience. Families should understand what opportunities are afforded with each option and their impact when making the decision of what’s best and appropriate for their child.  

Please, keep in mind that the "WIAA" is a voluntary membership of public and non-public schools that have joined together to create and provide programming opportunities for the students in their school.  To have the state government limit or prohibit membership in the WIAA–unless legislative mandates are followed­–is an alarming precedent and an unacceptable over-reach in an attempt to control a voluntary, private and non-profit organization. To be clear, as a private entity, the WIAA receives no funding from taxpayer dollars.

Furthermore, its counterintuitive when considering the fact that the WIAA was created by the very same schools that this legislation seeks to limit or prohibit membership.  Those member schools make their Association’s rules of eligibility. This bill limits and removes the recent trend to provide greater local control to school boards to govern their districts.

The purpose of the WIAA is stated in its Constitution, which was drafted upon its inception as the nation’s first state interscholastic athletic association and a charter member of the National Federation of State High School Associations. The WIAA was formed in 1896 by school principals to address and prohibit schools from using non-students on their athletic teams. Their focus was to provide uniformity of rules for its member schools.

WIAA Constitution: Section 1 – The purpose of this Association is threefold:

A. To organize, develop, direct, and control an interscholastic athletic program, which will promote the ideals of its membership and opportunities for member schools’ participation.

B. To emphasize interscholastic athletics as a partner with other school activities in the total educational process, and formulate and maintain policies which will cultivate high ideals of good citizenship and sportsmanship.

C. To promote uniformity of standards in interscholastic athletic competition, and prevent exploitation by special interest groups of the school program and the individual's ability.

Schools offer sports because of the widely studied and accepted premise of their inherent benefits. School activities reduce truancy, reduce discipline referrals, increase GPA and increase graduation rates. It would also be fair to state education-based sports are offered in our schools is to keep youth engaged in school offerings and interested in their education.

An overlooked aspect of this bill that should not be discarded is the divisiveness that is derived from the displacement of students who are actually full-time students and their school. The proposal marginalizes the commitment and opportunities for students enrolled in their school to represent their school.

Small schools traditionally have been concerned that opening the door to non-students for participation in its sports programs would accelerate the loss of enrollment and consequently, state aid. 

There are already many avenues that exist for students who are enrolled in a member school to gain access to eligibility through school-based online programs and through cooperative arrangements with other schools. In addition, there is equal access to the offerings of our diverse set of member schools through school choice and open enrollment.

Another concern is the impact of the bill as it pertains to the recruitment of, or undue influence on, individuals strictly for athletic purposes, which is prohibited by the membership’s Rule of Eligibility.

To further pursue the motives of the bill, the Wisconsin Parents Association – a prominent home school association – is opposed to the legislation, which has been a consistent stance for them on this style of legislation.

The membership recently addressed competitive equity concerns among public and private schools, and it determined–as it has done consistently–to treat all segments of the membership uniformly. This proposed bill gives significant advantages and opportunities to home schooled individuals and to students of non-public schools that, according to the language, are not equally afforded to students attending public schools.

The responsibility of educating and guiding students in the rules of eligibility that govern member schools of this Association shall rest with the administration of each member school.  An additional concern is that there is no apparent requirement that a private school must be a member of the WIAA for their students to participate on a public school team.  WIAA bona fide member schools have the responsibility to know, understand and abide by our Association rules. 

We believe that these items should be discussed and brought through the legislative process with involvement and perspectives from the organizations that it impacts the most. The WIAA was not consulted prior to the motion made by the Joint Finance Committee.

Here is the context of the bill: 

Motion #457

29.  Participation in Athletics and Extra-Curricular Activities.  Require a school board to permit a pupil who resides in the school district to participate in interscholastic athletics or extracurricular activities on the same basis and to the same extent as pupils enrolled in the district, if the pupil is enrolled in one of the following:  (a) a home-based private educational program; (b) a private school located in the district; (c) an independent “2r” charter school located in the district; or (d) a virtual school.  Provide that a pupil who is enrolled in a home-based private educational program and is determined by the public school or school board to be ineligible to participate in interscholastic athletics because of inadequate academic performance would be considered ineligible to participate.  Specify that a pupil attending a private school or an independent “2r” charter school could only participate in a sport that the private school or charter school does not offer.

Provide that a school district could not be a member of an athletic association unless the association required member school districts to permit home-based, private, charter, and virtual charter pupils to participate in athletic activities in the district.

Provide that a school board may charge participation fees to a non-public pupil who participates in interscholastic athletics or extracurricular activities, including fees for uniforms, equipment, and musical instruments, on the same basis and to the same extent as these fees are charged to pupils enrolled in the district.

The WIAA membership is strongly opposed to the legislation and concerned with numerous aspects of the bill that have not been considered or included, as well as the unintended consequences. Everyone in opposition or concerns must take immediate action by contacting their legislators and the Governor’s office. 

Click to Sign Petition

To locate and contact your legislator or Gov. Scott Walker, access these links:

http://maps.legis.wisconsin.gov/

http://www.walker.wisconsin.gov/contact-us

Tag(s): News  News Archive  BBB News  GBB News  News  News  News  News  Boys Track News  Girls Track News  News  News  Travis Wilson  WIAA  Competitive Equity