Deep Benches and Shallow Shoals

What is the role of sports in a child’s education? Most Americans embrace the idea of offering athletics at school, since sports participation teaches children teamwork, perseverance, communication skills, social awareness, humility, and a respect for the rule of law. Researchers Daniel H. Bowen and Jay P. Greene at the University of Arkansas have found:

…schools that offer more sports and field more successful teams produce higher test scores and graduation rates. So, there is no reason to believe that schools that emphasize sports do so at the expense of other educational goals.

Wonderful! So, how do we choose which sports to offer? How do we pay for the teams? Which kids get to play?


Bentonville Tiger Run, from Wikimedia Commons

Until recently, a high school athletic team in Arkansas would draw its members from the student body of its affiliated school. A traditional public school served students from the local population, which paid for the school (and the team) with a blend of local property taxes, local booster money, and state funding.

Things got more complicated in 2013, with the passage of the Quality Charter Schools Act. This allows for traditional public school districts to convert one or more of their traditional public schools to conversion charter schools. Once converted, these newly restructured schools can apply for waivers from many state laws — including teacher licensure requirements, class size limitations, curriculum requirements, teacher employment standards, and facilities requirements.

from the Arkansas Department of Education at https://myschoolinfo.arkansas.gov/Schools/Detail/0405048

According to the Quality Charter Schools Act (and the Arkansas Department of Education) Arkansas conversion charter schools may only enroll local students. However, Arkansas School Choice allows conversion charter schools to ignore this distinction, and enroll unlimited students from any district within the state of Arkansas, all while keeping their local tax income. This is not hypothetical — it’s already happening. But how does this loophole affect school sports in Arkansas?


School sports in Arkansas are governed by the Arkansas High School Activities Association (AHSAA,) a private non-profit organization that has power to govern the actions of public schools, without having to follow open-records rules* or financial disclosure requirements like they would if they identified as a state agency.

From the AHSAA 2017–18 Handbook at https://members.ahsaa.org/public/userfiles/Admin/2017-18_AAA_Handbook.pdf

The AHSAA made a new rule last year — effective immediately — that allows students from district conversion charter schools to join athletic teams at other schools run by the same district, as long as the local school board approves them.

Thus, all a school board has to do is convert one of its schools to a charter school, offer classes online or on a flexible schedule, and recruit top-performing athletes from across the state. Then (since virtual schools don’t have football teams) they can put those non-resident athletes on their locally-funded teams.

Yes, this technically violates a bunch of the AHSAA recruiting and eligibility rules and the Quality Charter Schools Act of 2013, but it’s also technically legal, according to the School Choice Act and the current Arkansas Department of Education.


Tim Tebow, 2005, Wikimedia Commons

Does this remind you of Tim Tebow’s backstory? It should. There is a nationwide lobbying effort, named after Tim Tebow, to allow home school and charter school students to participate in public school athletics.

Arkansas has gone one step further. Rather than just allowing home school/charter school students to participate in their local athletic programs, we have opened the door for statewide, competitive recruiting and the corruption that comes with it. Further, we have allowed the legislature and members of the public to be excluded from the right to oversee how these inter-scholastic sports are governed — despite the US Supreme Court’s ruling that statewide associations incorporated to regulate interscholastic athletic competition can be regarded as state actors.

Arkansas has long been avoiding its responsibility to govern public education within the state. We shouldn’t be surprised that the door is now open for corrupt recruiting practices and the commodification of student athletes.


Update: I found a lawsuit that went all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court, establishing precedent for the Arkansas High School Activities Association to be held to public disclosure (Freedom of Information Act) requirements. It’s Depoyster v. Cole. Enjoy!

Orchestrating Change

Elizabeth Lyon-Ballay Advocates for Public Education in Arkansas

Elizabeth Lyon-Ballay

Written by

Former professional violinist and public charter school teacher. Current stay-at-home mom and agitator for change.

Orchestrating Change

Elizabeth Lyon-Ballay Advocates for Public Education in Arkansas

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