Coaches and Friends of Public Schools

 

Our concerns are listed below. The admittance of private schools to the UIL creates an unleveled playing field.

If we are allowed to recruit and take students from any attendance zone; if we do not have to comply

With NCLB, TAKS testing, or for that matter “no pass, no play”, then that might make things better. Currently private schools admit only the people they wish to admit. If they could be forced by the state to take every kid that showed up and provide special education services, head start and all of the things public school must provide, then that would be a step in the right direction. Granted most private schools

would opt out because of the things they would have to comply with in order to participate. However, when the day comes ( and it will) they begin to petition their legislative allies because it is too great of a hardship for them to hire “full time” coaches; they say things like they have a non-graded curriculum ( N0 Pass, No Play out for them). They can and will pressure the legislature because so many things adversely affect their program. The legislature will eventually allow them exceptions to all rules. The two schools we currently have do not have boundaries.

 

Take Brook Hill for example; they board students from all over the state and the country. What a great set-up they have for success.

I would have those dorms full of athletes if they turned me lose as head football coach. We would be able to play at any level after a couple of years.

 

They do not have to meet Title 9 requirements. This means they can spend their money on anything they want. If they want to be successful in football, then they focus on football and just do what they want with girls sport or any other sport. They do not have to comply with attendance zone regulations or any kind of mandatory federal or state regulations.

 

Just recruit and play.  The two schools currently playing in the UIL (Jesuit of Dallas and Jesuit of Houston) are 5A schools with enrollments of aprox. 1000 male only students. That is equivalent a 5A enrollment if you consider that would double if they had females.

The current proposed legislation would allow these schools to enter based only on their enrollment. Therefore the Jesuit schools would drop to either 4A or 3A.   Jesuit lost this year in the sate finals to Desoto in Basketball. I can only imagine how many state championships these schools will win when they are allowed to enter based only on their enrollments. ( Note: Jesuit had three basketball players

Signing Divison One…no program in the State of Texas has three D1 athletes in basketball ; most programs never have a D1 player, the ones that do are few and far between. A school having three D1 basketball players is almost a historic event).

Anyway, life as we know it will change forever if this unfair and biased legislation is passed.

 

We better make a push now to get this thing defeated. If not, then you guys need to get your resumes out and head as quickly as you can to private schools. The only people left in public schools will be the ones that the private schools do not want. It may take 5-10 years for that to happen. If you want to get a look at how bad things can get, then simply look at Louisiana. That will be an eye opener.

 

See below for the talking points. Please do what you can.

 

Mike Owens

AD/Head Football

Tyler Lee High School

903-262-3408- Office

 

 

 

 



 THSCA LEGISLATIVE ALERT

 Private Schools Petition the State Legislature for Admittance to the U.I.L.

            S.B. 1831, by Dan Patrick of Houston and H.B. 1829, by Frank Corte of San Antonio, are companion bills relating to participation of private schools in U.I.L. sponsored activities.

            If passed the language in these bills would destroy a level playing field for our public schools and the children they serve. This would affect athletics, academics, music and fine arts in all classifications.

            On Thursday, April 2, S.B. 1831 passed through the Senate Education Committee by a 5 to 4 margin. Senators Van de Putte, West, Averit and Gallegos supported our position by voting against this bill. Because the next step in this process will be to submit the bill on the Senate Floor for a vote, it is especially important that we voice our opposition to S.B. 1831 as soon as possible.

            So we need your help to contact our state senators and representatives to show a strong opposition to opening the U.I.L. membership to private schools!!!

            We are asking each of you to use the following bullet points and contact your senators and representatives to express your opposition to S.B. 1831 and H.B. 1829.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO FRIENDS OF PUBLIC SCHOOL ATHLETICS.

Bullet points in opposition to Private School Membership in all U.I.L. Activities:

  • Private schools must recruit to exist. (Impossible to comply to recruiting rules because recruiting is critical to their very existence.)

 

 

  • Private schools do not have to admit all children. (Public schools are required to take all comers; private schools are able to create a select environment)

 

  • Private schools do not comply with parent residence boundaries as do most all public schools. (How do you solve the issue of boundaries with private schools?)

 

  • Academic Standards are not mandated by statue while public schools are heavily regulated.

 

  • Private schools control the number of students who attend and would control their U.I.L. Classification while a public school cannot. (The smaller the classification the greater the impact of private schools.)

 

  • Private schools have an unfair competitive advantage in that they have a unique situation in the fact that they can establish a select environment.

 

SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE:

For a complete list of Senators & Contact Information CLICK HERE!

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC EDUCATION:

For a complete list of Representatives & Contact Information CLICK HERE!

To access the Legislative Web-page – www.capitol.state.tx.us