Change high school athletic divisions for charter schools, private schools, NC House says
Updated June 27 with the language about athletics divisions being removed from the bill.
Some North Carolina charter schools and private schools could be required to change high school athletic divisions amid complaints they have an unfair competitive advantage.
Currently, high schools in the N.C. High School Athletic Association are placed in divisions, or classifications, based on factors such as the number of students and geographic area. But the N.C. House passed legislation on Wednesday requiring charter schools and private schools to be placed based on the size of the traditional public schools their students would have attended.
The bill would cause some charter schools and private schools to be moved to a new division to compete against bigger schools. Bill supporters say a change is needed because charter schools and private schools are dominating smaller traditional public schools.
“You’ve seen an eroding of 1A and 2A athletic programs where the charter schools have completely come in and dominated those athletic events,” Rep. John Bell, a Wayne County Republican, said at Tuesday’s House Education Committee meeting.
House Bill 219 was approved in a 75-42 vote. The “no” votes focused on other portions of the bill, which include expanding how many students can be accepted into charter schools without prior state approval.
The language about changing athletic divisions was removed from the bill by the state Senate Education Committee on June 27.
Unfair advantage?
The bill would:
▪ Require charter or non-public schools to give the State Board of Education the names of the traditional schools to which all of its students would have been assigned, as well as the percentage of those students who would’ve attended each of those traditional schools.
▪ Require charter or non-public schools to play in a classification based on the school or schools that the largest percentage of the student body would’ve been assigned. So if the majority of a charter school’s students would’ve been assigned to 4A Myers Park, that school would be play in the 4A division.
▪ The bill also allows for a hardship waiver.
The bill directs the State Board of Education to adopt emergency rules to implement the changes for the 2023-24 school year.
The wording on reclassifying the athletic divisions was added in committee on Tuesday. At the meeting, Bell argued that charter schools and private schools that draw students from across the state have an unfair competitive advantage when they compete against traditional public schools of the same size.
The Senate had considered requiring charter schools and private schools to move to the next highest division before that wording was dropped from a bill on Monday.
Bell said the House decided not to include that “move up” option because it could devastate a new charter school starting its athletic program.
This story was originally published May 3, 2023 at 6:40 PM with the headline "Change high school athletic divisions for charter schools, private schools, NC House says."
