Legislative Gamesmanship.

From eligibility standards to on-field behavior, state legislators are muscling their way into how school sports are conducted

Danny Wright, a 6-foot-7 center and star basketball player for Santaluces High School in Palm Beach County, Fla., spent the first month of the season last winter on the bench, barred from playing because, according to the state, his grades weren't up to snuff.

At least, that's what school officials who put him there thought.

Confusion over how to apply new academic eligibility requirements passed by the Florida legislature only months before the school year began led to the benching of Wright and about 50 other athletes in the county.

The Florida High School Activities Association, the independent agency that oversees all the state's interscholastic sports, eventually cleared up the interpretation problem, allowing the sidelined athletes to return to their respective sports. But parents and coaches were incensed over the bumpy start to the winter sports season, and Palm Beach school officials heard their complaints loud and clear.

"Parents had paid to send their kids to sports camp, coaches put them through practice, the whole route, only to find out that these kids can't play" and then that they are in fact, eligible, says Glenn Heyward, principal of Santaluces High. "It was confusing. We were getting directions from all over the place"--he state legislature, the state activities association and local officials. "Ultimately, we're the ones to blame for following what we thought were the rules."

Those rules, Heyward and other Florida school officials say, are increasingly being established by state lawmakers.

Debating Minutia 

Secondary school sports traditionally have been a local concern governed by independent state activities associations like the FHSAA, whose boards are typically a mix of principals and athletic staff. But increasingly, as in the new academic standards in the Sunshine State, interscholastic sports are becoming fodder for state lawmakers. School administrators everywhere should heed the change.

"In the last couple of years there's been an array of [school] sports-related legislation coming from state capitols," says Daniel Nestel, assistant director of government relations for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Nestel says he sees a "continued focus" in states on athletes' academic eligibility, home-schooling, safety issues and coaching certification, sportsmanship and drug testing.

He and others attribute the torrent of new school sports legislation to lawmakers' increased role in school finance, education reform and school choice issues. So in addition to rolling out policies detailing everything from school taxes to school curriculum, more and more state lawmakers are debating the minutia of interscholastic athletics--who plays, when they play, how they play, where they play.

"There's been more legislative intervention with education systems across the board, and just as expected, high school sports fall in the mix," says Robert F. Kanaby, executive director of the Kansas City, Mo.,-based National Federation of State High School Associations, which has served as the service and administrative center for state activity associations since 1920.

Bruce Hunter, AASA's director of government relations, credits the bottom line--what he calls the "Golden Rule of politics"--for lawmakers' relatively new domain. "He who gives the gold makes the rule," Hunter says. With schools relying less on their local government to fund schools and more on the state, leaders on the state level have a bigger say in how school dollars are being spent, athletics and other extracurricular activities included, he says.

Most people date legislative involvement in school sports to 1984, when the Texas legislature approved a law pushed by businessman H. Ross Perot that required students to earn passing grades in their classes or lose the opportunity to practice or play with their school sports teams. That law made national headlines, and today several states including Florida, and most recently Iowa and Ohio, are imposing such policies, most of which extend to students participating in extracurricular activities.

The measure in Ohio was particularly unsettling. The state legislature last winter mandated that all school districts impose a minimum grade point average and a "no pass, no play" policy for interscholastic participation. But the stricter standards for eligibility did not apply to parochial and private schools, who nonetheless compete for state championships with the public schools.

Clair Muscaro, commissioner of the Ohio High School Athletic Association, faulted the legislation for creating a "tilted" playing surface. His association successfully lobbied the state legislature to extend the measures to nonpublic schools.

"It's all about creating a level playing field," he says. "More and more lawmakers are getting involved [in school sports], but I wish they would let us address their concerns. We're about as democratic as you can get. And our officials know schools firsthand-they re in schools everyday."

A Power Grab

In other states, a whole array of school sports-related legislation has been or is being considered, even while lawmakers debate broader educational issues.

In Kentucky, where much of the 1998 legislative session was devoted to overhauling the state's student assessment program, the governor in April signed a bill that will impose stricter penalties on anyone who causes or threatens to cause harm to referees and umpires. According to the National Association of Sports Officials, which has documented dozens of physical assaults against high school officials, Kentucky became the 12th state to provide legal protection.

In Arizona, site of a protracted battle over a new school construction finance measure, lawmakers have debated a plan to allow schools to adopt drug-testing guidelines for student athletes. And in New York, where state lawmakers fought long and hard over a new charter school proposal, the legislators squeezed in deliberations over whether to let home-schooled students participate in public school sports and activities.

In some states, rather than trying to tweak specific improvements in their interscholastic sports programs, lawmakers are intent on stripping their activities association's power altogether.

After fielding years of complaints from school officials and parents about the Florida association's inflexibility, state lawmakers last year debated whether to appoint a new body to oversee school sports. Ultimately, state leaders ordered the association to revamp its governance structure. Similarly, amid growing concerns the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association has stymied school choice and generally has been unresponsive, the state's lawmakers are debating whether to make the independent agency accountable to the state education department.

The heightened legislative role in school sports comes at a time when more students than ever-some six million according to the National Federation of State High School Associations-are participating in school sports and under higher stakes than ever. It also comes at a time when athletes' parents are more apt to call their local representatives when their child runs into a snag, and lawmakers are more apt to try to address constituent concerns.

The increased state role in governing school sports is done "in the spirit of lawmakers trying to be very attentive in servicing the needs of their constituents," explains Gary Musselman, executive director of the Kansas State High School Association, which is based in Topeka. "That spirit has combined with other dynamics in youth sports-it's a growing industry and there's more money involved, everybody wants a scholarship and everybody thinks their child is a Division I player or the second coming."

Reluctant Players

For their part though, many lawmakers say they would rather leave sports governance to their state activities association. It is with great reluctance, these lawmakers contend, that they make and debate legislation pertaining to high school sports.

The state association executives are the experts. We're the novices," says Kentucky state Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo, a Democrat who cosponsored a bill last session with the blessing of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association that will prohibit students turning 19 before Aug. 1 from playing high school sports during the subsequent school year. "They deal with sports and education day in and day out for years, and I wouldn't dream of changing one of their rules without consulting with them first."

Other lawmakers say they act only when their efforts to work with their state activities association have been re-buffed.

Such was the case several years ago, says Virginia Del. James H. Dillard, a Republican, when he sponsored a bill that changed the Virginia High School League's policy prohibiting public school athletes from playing with private club teams. Dillard says he had initially tried to get the VHSL to change its own rule. Only when that failed, he says, "and a whole organization of angry constituents" were calling him and other lawmakers to protest, he drafted and lawmakers passed a state law allowing school athletes to play club sports--a law the VHSL had to honor.

"Generally speaking, I don't believe that the General Assembly really wants to get involved in high school sports," Dillard says. "Legislative bodies step in when long-standing pressures force us to-when constituents or lawmakers feel the [state activities association] has not responded to reason."

And for the most part, school administrators too, say they would rather lawmakers stay on the sidelines of the school sports arena, even while acknowledging that their state activities associations could make some changes to better serve schools.

"We don't think that interscholastic sports will be improved with a state agency getting involved," says Stinson W. Stroup executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. "It's important to have an independent body making decisions, but it s equally important that that group is able to make decisions quickly and apply rules equitably."

"The PIAA," he continues, "has not always been so responsive. They should open up the process so that more folks with a broad educational perspective oversee sports.

Bruce Hunter says that although most lawmakers are getting involved in school sports with the best of intentions, what can result is "the law of unintended consequence."

He adds: "The law is a blunt instrument, and anytime you use it as a scalpel [to resolve a particular problem,] you re making a mistake." State laws are much more difficult to undo than association rules, he notes.

Although AASA has not taken a formal stance against legislative intervention in high school sports, Hunter says the association would like to see more seats for superintendents on statewide governing boards, especially in regions where the activity associations's boards are made up exclusively of principals, athletic directors and coaches. And he urged that school administrators who have the opportunity to become involved in sports governance do so. (See related story, page 38.)

Unfair Reputations

Although lawmakers have kept out of school sports in many states, the flurry of statehouse activity in others has activity leaders on notice. A session at the National Federation of State High School Associations' annual summer meeting this year was entitled "Combating State Takeover" and featured recommendations on how state associations can defend themselves against their state legislative bodies and special-interest groups.

Bonnie Northcutt, policy director for the Texas University Interscholastic League, advised association officials at that session to keep the communication lines between their agencies and state leaders open.

"In today's world, individuals are much more prone to go to lawmakers with complaints and problems," Northcutt says. Lawmakers should feel free to call association officials for explanations of policies at issue, she says, and association officials should head off problems by regularly checking in with state leaders.

Many association leaders say they feel unjustly singled out as bureaucratic power mongers. Last year, for example, the VHSL was raked over the coals by lawmakers, parents and school officials for deeming a football player, who had been abandoned by his parents and was living with his aunt and uncle, ineligible to play for his high school. The statewide group argued that the aunt and uncle had not completed the proper paperwork to become his legal guardian before the season started.

In mid-season, under pressure, the VHSL granted the student a special waiver and he was given the green light to finish the season, but the VHSL's reputation as an ogre remains.

"We were portrayed all over the state as heartless," says Ken Tilley, executive director for the VHSL. He and other association officials say their rules may seem harsh but are meant to serve all athletes and create as equitable a playing field as possible.

"Our rules are not intended to limit the rights of individuals but to create an equitable climate for all participants," says Musselman of the Kansas State High School Association. "In some instances, activity associations are ranked somewhere with the IRS. But our rules have a well-developed rationale and have been adopted in a very democratic way."

Ray Craft, associate commissioner of the Indiana High School Athletic Association, says that responsiveness is his association's first priority. "Our constituency is educators, and we listen to them and follow what's coming into schools ... and they support us.

Kerry White is a staff writer with Education Week.

Getting Off the Sidelines to Tackle Legislation

School sports are governed by particular state activity association rules and, increasingly, state laws that are changing as quickly as education itself.

Since few superintendents or their central-office deputies serve on the governing boards that run the statewide activity groups, experts advise those with district-level authority to pay attention to the changes and proposed reforms affecting school sports and, where possible, use their expertise and influence to shape them. Even with their growing roster of responsibilities, superintendents should not view athletics as the exclusive domain of athletic directors and principals.

"School administrators need to take an active role in school sports," advises Robert F. Kanaby, a former school administrator in New Jersey who now directs the Kansas City, Mo.,-based National Federation of State High School Associations. "You can't ignore what 60 percent of your students are involved in, and you don't want to wait until 300 angry parents show up at a board meeting to get involved."

Play to Strengths

Kanaby and others say that school sports can be an administrator's greatest asset in reaching out to the community and boosting school spirit. They say school leaders should work to become or stay involved in athletics and its growing body of rules by networking regularly with state lawmakers and activity association leaders.

"Every smart administrator plays to all strengths of a school system--the debate team, the band and all athletic teams," says Bruce Hunter, AASA's director of government relations. "Administrative associations need to make a more concerted effort to think about sports as a political issue. But when I look at the legislative agenda items of associations, I don't see much about sports."

Many school administrators, however, are well aware of the importance of overseeing sports and after-school activities and warn of the consequences of turning away from school activities, especially in regions where lawmakers are willing to step up to the plate.

"Superintendents, more than anyone in the school system, have an idea of how sports fit into the big picture," says Richard Durost, superintendent of the Easton, Maine, schools and president-elect of the National Federation of State High School Associations. "I've always thought it absolutely essential to pay attention and give guidance and direction to schools ... and work with the local community and state lawmakers."

Shaping Sports

Superintendents in California have publicly criticized the way principals and athletic directors make statewide decisions with significant financial impact, such as adding sports or changing a sport's post-season playoffs.

Under the leadership of Jack Hayes, the California Interscholastic Federation is taking steps to reach out to school district administrators and give them a voice indecision making.

"A strong athletic program goes hand in hand with a strong academic program," says Bob Wallace, superintendent of the Escalon, Calif., Unified Schools and the superintendents' liaison representative to the CIF. "And school administrators have to be involved and active."

Administrators need to appreciate what a profound learning experience sports can be for students and should use their educational expertise to shape their district's sports programs and state's sports governance issues accordingly, he and others advise.

The focus of school sports "should be learning--not winning at all costs," says Art Taylor of the Center for the Study for Sport in Society at Northeastern University in Boston. Policy governing school sports needs to acknowledge that, he adds.