NC Senate Republicans push for eliminating NCHSAA, starting new governing board
North Carolina lawmakers’ scrutiny of the N.C. High School Athletic Association, which Republicans said previously needs more oversight, could result in an entirely new lineup of who governs high school sports.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association oversees the officiating standards across the state and enforces the official rule books. A new bill from Senate Republicans would change game day governance, citing accountability and oversight as the reason for the proposal.
NCHSAA’s leader called the move “a full-scale attack.”
In a new bill revealed during a state Senate committee on Tuesday, the NCHSAA would no longer administer high school athletics in the state. Instead, a 17-member commission would oversee prep athletics. The commission would set and enforce the rules as well as set the conferences, responsibilities that previously fell on the NCHSAA.
Sen. Todd Johnson, a Union County Republican, said that by the 2022-23 school year, athletics would be administered by the state board and a new athletics commission.
The bill still has to pass Senate committees and a floor vote before going to the House. Johnson said the NCHSAA has more assets than several other states combined.
“There’s no accountability, no oversight,” he told The News & Observer on Tuesday.
“The funding for schools comes from the legislature, and the funding for the High School Athletic Association comes from the schools. So the public schools … are under the purview of our legislature, therefore we need oversight of some sort,” Johnson said.
According to the mission statement on its website, the goal of the NCHSAA is “to provide governance and leadership for interscholastic athletic programs that support and enrich the educational experience of students.” The NCHSAA was founded in 1913 by UNC professor Dr. Louis Round Wilson.
The current NCHSAA board is made up of principals, athletic directors and superintendents from across North Carolina. The News & Observer has reached out to NCHSAA for comment.
New high school sports commission?
In April, the Republican-majority chamber held a hearing to question the NCHSAA and oversight, and a separate bill would have required the NCHSAA to be audited by the State Auditor. The topic reappeared Tuesday in the Senate Education Committee meeting in the form of a substitute of a previous bill related to autism regulations, known as a gut-and-amend process.
The new version of House Bill 91, if it becomes law, would create the North Carolina Interscholastic Athletic Commission. The commission would have 17 members, all who work in public schools as an athletic director, superintendent, assistant superintendent, associate superintendent, principal, assistant principal or a full-time employee who is also a coach.
The 17-member board would be appointed, with nine members by the governor, four by the General Assembly House speaker and four by the Senate president pro tempore. Terms last four years.
Private schools would not be under the proposed new commission.
Sen. Vickie Sawyer, an Iredell County Republican, said public money is for the public good.
“Private schools have opportunity, like my daughter does, to play in a private league,” she said.
“This in no way disallows a private school from playing public schools. They absolutely can on a Friday night. ... But when it comes to the playoffs, that is only for the public, charter schools,” Sawyer said.
NCHSAA reaction
NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker said in an emailed statement Tuesday night that the legislature’s discussion represents “what we believe to be a full-scale attack on the ability and desire of the NCHSAA Member Schools to govern their own affairs as relates to high school athletics, education-based athletics.”
“We believe that high school athletics in our state should not be a political issue. When you start peeling away or turning the pages of this bill, clearly there are politics involved in how the new Commission that they have mention would be established,” Tucker said.
“We want what is best for students in North Carolina, particularly the student-athletes in our program. We believe that many members of the General Assembly are motivated to that end as well. We have demonstrated our willingness to partner with the General Assembly, and we want to work towards our goal of being the national model for education-based athletics in the country,” Tucker said.
‘Death penalty’ for the NCHSAA
The new commission would be housed by the state’s Department of Administration, which is an Executive Branch cabinet agency, but would operate independently. According to the bill, the commission would also be audited by the State Auditor, which is a statewide elected position. Beth Wood is the current auditor.
Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, a Raleigh Democrat, asked if it was warranted to kill the association and replace it. He called it additional bureaucracy.
Johnson said during the committee that they’ve spent 22 months trying to “move the ball down the field” with NCHSAA. “Had we seen movement toward a shared goal of keeping that student athletic focus” they wouldn’t have needed the bill.
Chaudhuri called it a “death penalty” for NCHSAA.
In NCHSAA’s statement, Tucker said they feel it is “unlikely, at best, that students in our state will be the benefactors if changes such as what we see in HB 91 and suggestions like we see in that bill are made under the threat of imminent legislative takeover.”
No members of the public spoke during the committee. The bill, for discussion only on Tuesday, is expected to be back in the Senate Education committee again on Wednesday.
Staff writer Colin Campbell contributed to this story.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at link.chtbl.com/underthedomenc or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published July 20, 2021 at 4:37 PM with the headline "NC Senate Republicans push for eliminating NCHSAA, starting new governing board."
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