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| DocAJ1589 |
Posted - 04/30/2025 : 12:28:08
Whether you agree with the bill or you don't, this type of legislation is dangerous. Keep in mind that the AHSAA receives NO money from the State of Alabama. Allowing the state to simply march in and start dictating operations set a dangerous precedent.
This bill is being sponsored by a group of state house members that are plain and simply attempting to help the school's athletic teams gain an advantage. If it goes through, then another legislator will use this same tactic to help his local team. The cycle will be endless and eventually will destroy high school sports.
This would also allow public schools to falsify their enrollment numbers so that they can remain in or drop to a classification.
I have included the bill below:
This bill requires athletic associations that include public high schools to adjust their athletic classification system in a specific way starting with the 2026-2027 academic year. The bill mandates that when determining athletic classifications for championship programs or interscholastic athletic events, the association must adjust a school's classification to account for English language learner (ELL) students who do not participate in athletic events. The State Board of Education is tasked with creating rules to implement this adjustment. Additionally, the bill requires athletic associations to include two non-voting members on their governing body: one minority party member from the House of Representatives (appointed by the Speaker) and one member from the Senate (appointed by the President Pro Tempore). The term "athletic association" is defined according to existing Alabama state law, and the provisions of this bill will take effect on June 1, 2025, with the classification changes first applying in the 2026-2027 academic school year.
The Doc AJ |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| acrawford81 |
Posted - 05/05/2025 : 15:21:31
I would encourage folks to read HB298 and then read HB289, both are sponsored by the same Senator.
HB298 wants to omit a certain group of students from being counted to allow a classification change in sports and HB289 wants all students to be counted for distribution of money from the TVA.
Draw your own conclusions. |
| CCHS07 |
Posted - 05/05/2025 : 13:37:27
I imagine the bill defines ELL very specifically, but it doesn't take much imagination to foresee a school try and exploit that as a loophole and claim, for the sake of the argument, they shouldn't have to count the large contingent of football and basketball players who struggle/fail regular English class. Another is the obvious incentive for schools to undercount themselves. I am in favor of no situation where a school benefits from that but also gets to keep tax revenue distributed for being larger.
This bill essentially acts as a state-sponsored bonus program: Schools like Albertville, who are larger, get larger amounts of tax dollars to run their school system from the state based on enrollment. They would now get to use that increase in dollars against smaller schools who get less money now that they are competing directly against them instead of other similarly populated schools. This is similar to the private school multiplier rule but the effect is the exact opposite: The State is creating the benefit (as opposed to the private school itself) and requiring others to compete on an unlevel playing field (instead of the AHSAA being able to balance the playing filed with the multiplier rule and later, the automatic elevation to higher classifications).
I cant help but wonder what Shades Valley must think about this. They have had many, many trying seasons in their current location, at least partially exacerbated by the fact their campus includes the HS as well as the JeffCo Int'l Baccalaureate School, the Theatre academy, techincal academy, DABBS, etc...a bunch of kids that are Unlikely to participate in sports. To think they could have just wished all those losses away with the help of some enterprising legislator...
The most charitable interpretation of this is that Albertville wants their losses to Arab, Boaz and Guntersville to be region games now. They are only 2-13 against those schools since joining 7A. The more honest interpretation is that Albertville is an inconsequential school in the easiest region in 7A and find themselves unable to hack it even there.
I cant imagine the Governor signs this. |
| mcslate |
Posted - 05/01/2025 : 00:54:19
Sounds like a solution in search of a problem. I'm hoping the AHSAA's legal team takes a good look. |
| jtoddo |
Posted - 04/30/2025 : 15:16:53
This is a horrible bill. The state politicians should have no say in this whatsoever. Also, if you don't count them for athletics are you still going to count their academic standings against the school stats and test scores? |
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