Mississippi’s largest high-school athletic league is speaking out against a bill narrowly passed by the state House of Representatives on Thursday to expand school-choice options, a package the league’s executive director asserts “will open the doors for recruiting.”
House Bill 2 includes a multitude of education reforms and at least three that could directly impact the Mississippi High School Activities Association: streamlining the process of public-to-public transfers, allowing homeschooled kids to play public-school sports, and allowing the use of public money to be spent on private-school tuition.
“We are against it as it will open the doors for recruiting and put schools at an unfair advantage on the court and the playing fields,” MHSAA executive director Rickey Neaves said.
HB 2, which has been sent to the Senate where appetite for the package as a whole is currently small, aims to remove the home district’s veto power when a student wants to transfer to another public school. Under existing law, a student looking to transfer to another public school must receive approval from both the home and receiving districts, something that rarely happens since per-student money allocated to schools leaves with them. The bill would place sole veto power with the receiving district and force the MHSAA to determine transferring student-athletes’ eligibility.
The Senate passed virtually the same public-to-public transfer measure. MHSAA officials are against that measure, as well.
Expanding on where the Senate stopped, HB 2 would make way for homeschooled students to play sports within the MHSAA, designating them to public schools based on their place of residence. This portion of the bill is referred to as the Tim Tebow Act, as Tebow was a homeschooled student in Florida who played public-school sports before advancing to the college and NFL levels.
HB 2 would also create thousands of accounts made up of public money that parents could use for private-school tuition. With some private schools that don’t participate in the MHSAA, specifically in the Jackson area, long being accused of recruiting MHSAA players, Neaves is concerned that player plucking will only get worse.
“We do not believe that public money should be used for private-school education or homeschool education,” Neaves said. “The parents already made their choice on these. There are many reasons to be against school choice.”
The MHSAA holds membership of the vast majority of Mississippi’s public schools and some private and parochial schools. In addition to athletics, it oversees activities such as band, debate, and academic competitions.
