UIL Standing Committee on Athletics meeting 6/14

[HoustonUmp]

Has there been any word on topics discussed at the meeting last Tuesday, specifically the proposal to eliminate cut block, chop block and any BBW and 1204 issues?

[TXMike]

http://www.galvnews.com/sports/high_school/free/article_3136a95e-ca18-5051-8a39-378e22a88e0a.html

[TexDoc]

What did not get past the committee is much more interesting, and telling, than what did make it.  The transgender deal is ridiculous.  Shot clock in basketball, meh.  Pitching limitations, should probably be looked at.  Home school students, if they want to play, go to school.  Chop blocks, etc, we follow NCAA rules so let NCAA rules prevail.  Conf 7A, not needed quite yet.  Add other sports, meh.  Live game broadcasts, could open Pandora's Box.  And the most important, to us at least, create more requirements for officials.  Can anyone elaborate as to what these requirements would have been and what is the genesis of this?

Agenda items that did not get past the committee Tuesday included proposals to:
— Allow transgender athletes to play the gendered sport with which they identify
— Add a 35-second shot clock for basketball
— Establish pitching limitations in baseball
— Let home school students participate in UIL sports
— Eliminate chop blocks, cut blocks or any block below the waist from football
— Create a Conference 7A
— Add gymnastics, powerlifting, water polo and lacrosse as UIL-sanctioned sports
— Allow live games to be telecast
— Create more requirements for officials

[TXMike]

The requirement being discussed was simply a change in the way baseball incident reports are files I believe .   The blocking stuff Threw me.  That should have gone to Rules Committee but there was no discussion there at all so who ever submitted it may want to send to right place next time


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[hefnerjm]

Home school students, if they want to play, go to school. 

Doc,
I feel like we usually agree on most topics and I like your common sense approach to most things...that said, I think you dismiss homeschoolers too quickly.

My kids are young and not in school yet, but my wife and I are seriously considering all options for our kids education, including homeschooling. 

As I would tell any family, the method you use to educate your kids, (whether public, private, charter, or homeschool) is your prerogative as parents. 
Homeschool parents fund the school system by paying their property taxes without being a burden on an already overburdened system...is it really too much to ask that kids who homeschool are afforded the same opportunity to pursue athletics? 

I would like to hear the perspectives out there, both for and against, on this topic, or to gain a deeper understand on the discussion that was had by the committee.

[TexDoc]

Hef,

My concern is about accountability.  The public school kids are required to have passing grades and pass the STAR test.  Are there the same requirements made of home schooled kids?  I have nothing at all against home schooling, if the parent doing the instruction is truly qualified to do so. 

If a group of home schooled kids wants to get together and form a sports team, they can certainly do so and play in the TAPPS league.  I think there were some teams like this in the past actually.

[TXMike]

There are some in the homeschool community who really do not want this as they fear it opens the door to more government oversight of their activities and will lead to them being required to do certain things they are not now.  And to Doc's point, if the door is opened to them then they must be forced to comply with the same rules public school students are forced to comply with now.  If they can do so, I am not against letting them on teams.  But the road gets murky when we start talking about which team do they go to.  Is it based on their residence address?  The address of where they are "homeschooled"?  Some other address? If they can be shown to be going to the same school they would attend if in public school, and they comply with same requirements as public school students,  i.e. attendance, course passing, conduct, etc, then let them be on the team. 

[hefnerjm]

There are some in the homeschool community who really do not want this as they fear it opens the door to more government oversight of their activities and will lead to them being required to do certain things they are not now.  And to Doc's point, if the door is opened to them then they must be forced to comply with the same rules public school students are forced to comply with now.  If they can do so, I am not against letting them on teams.  But the road gets murky when we start talking about which team do they go to.  Is it based on their residence address?  The address of where they are "homeschooled"?  Some other address? If they can be shown to be going to the same school they would attend if in public school, and they comply with same requirements as public school students,  i.e. attendance, course passing, conduct, etc, then let them be on the team.

I think the questions about what school a kid plays for are easy.  Where do you live?  The assigned school based on address is where you play.  Why would it need to be any more complicated than that? 


If standardized testing is the measure of acedemic performance, I dont think anyone who suggest that homeschool student arent meeting (more like far exceeding) the academic requirements for athletes in public schools.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/30/home-schooling-outstanding-results-national-tests/

Here is the summary: "the results were slightly better than the most recent large academic study regarding home-schoolers (the 1998 Rudner study), and the average home-school test results continue to be 30-plus percentile points higher than their public school counterparts."

Keep in mind, this study didnt look at atheletes, but rather 12,000 home school students across all 50 states as a whole population.

I think I agree with you that the key will be what requirements are imposed by UIL in order to "confirm" a homeschool student is jumping through all the same hoops as public school students in order to play. 

[hefnerjm]

Hef,

My concern is about accountability.  The public school kids are required to have passing grades and pass the STAR test.  Are there the same requirements made of home schooled kids?  I have nothing at all against home schooling, if the parent doing the instruction is truly qualified to do so. 

This is an interesting concept Doc.  What threshold determines if someone is qualified to teach their children?  More importantly, who determines that threshold? 

This is something that many homeschool parents feel angst about, but it wasnt until I saw this video that my mind was blown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eSgcYNTwKQ

Sam Sorbo (actress and college professor) says the following: "I went to Duke University.  I studied biomedical engineering.  I speak five languages, and I felt inadequate to teach my children.  How pathetic is that?"

She really challenges a lot of the stereotypes and stigmas associated with homeschooling and made my wife and I really start to think about some of the assumptions we were making (like, are we "qualified" or not) when discussing how we want our kids to be educated. 

It also blew my mind to think that only a generation ago, it was ILLEGAL and you could be sent to jail for homeschooling your kids.  But it is the dialogue forums like this that moves the discussion forward in all areas of education...not just the classroom, but athletics as well.

[TexDoc]

Honestly, I don't have a very strong opinion concerning home schooling.  My kids are long out of school.  I don't think it's so big that it is really an issue in Texas.  My parents are both retired public school employees (dad was a superintendent and mom was a middle school principal), so I've heard their stories about kids supposedly being home schooled, when the parents were just using this as a guise for not making the kids go to school.  There really needs to be a measure of whether the kids are being taught or mom and dad are just letting the kids play hooky.  Maybe that's the STARR test.

As for competition in UIL sports by kids not going to public schools, I've always felt that isn't right and opens the door to recruitment.  There are only two private schools now playing in UIL sports and one just won a state championship in baseball.  I wonder if there were any reports of recruiting.

[hefnerjm]

Honestly, I don't have a very strong opinion concerning home schooling.  My kids are long out of school.  I don't think it's so big that it is really an issue in Texas.  My parents are both retired public school employees (dad was a superintendent and mom was a middle school principal), so I've heard their stories about kids supposedly being home schooled, when the parents were just using this as a guise for not making the kids go to school.  There really needs to be a measure of whether the kids are being taught or mom and dad are just letting the kids play hooky.  Maybe that's the STARR test.

As for competition in UIL sports by kids not going to public schools, I've always felt that isn't right and opens the door to recruitment.  There are only two private schools now playing in UIL sports and one just won a state championship in baseball.  I wonder if there were any reports of recruiting.

I absolutely agree on the recruitment issue.  Kids should play where their assigned school is based on residence...and I am pretty sure there are already checks in place to prevent unseemly transfers by buying a house inside the district for a specific school.

Food for thought next year when the committee reviews such policies again.