More dialogue on a mighty touchy subject — one squarely centered on Pennsylvania’s boys’ basketball championships and the impact/success charter schools are making/enjoying — is definitely needed.
And soon.
That was the general conclusion reached Tuesday morning at the State Capitol, where members of the PIAA Legislative Oversight Committee chaired by Rep. Gene DiGirolamo (R-Bucks) listened intently as the PIAA revealed its concerns and representatives of Pennsylvania charter schools countered those arguments with arguments of their own.
When the meeting room finally cleared following several hours of testimony and a number of probing questions from the Oversight Committee — after several elected officials strongly suggested they saw no reason for a legislative remedy — both sides agreed that additional discussion should take place.
Will it … and when … is the next step.
“We would be open to that dialogue, because if we can have direct contact with the charter school leadership, maybe we could figure out a way to develop a policy to address this,” said Dr. Robert Lombardi, the executive director of the PIAA.
“Because as asked repeatedly by the oversight committee, they never did address whether they have a consistent and clear-cut policy on how they handle athletics. That answer was not forthcoming,” Lombardi continued.
“We have no problem with their mission. Their mission is honorable and for the right reasons; we get it. The issue we have is in the how to and who is.”
Lombardi’s mission/concerns deal with the dominance charter schools have displayed in the boys’ basketball tournaments since 2006 — charter schools have won eight championships and finished second four times since then — and whether or not said schools are playing by the same rules as everyone else. Thirty-nine charter schools are part of the PIAA at the high school level.
And while Lombardi suggested that AAU basketball’s growth, combined with charter schools’ ability to attract student-athletes from numerous districts without a tuition requirement, has led to the formation of regional all-star teams that could wind up at charter schools and create a competitive imbalance.
Lombardi’s testimony also mentioned one of the participants (without revealing the school’s name until later) involved in last month’s PIAA Class A championship game at Hershey’s Giant Center having an influx of transfers on its roster. That gave said school the ability to reload, something most small schools cannot do.
The other school, which draws from dozens of school districts, had two basketball players traveling at least 50 miles each way to attend class.
So how does this happen in Class A, the smallest of the PIAA’s basketball-playing classifications?
“That’s the $64,000 question,” said Lombardi, whose solution is to have charter school students compete at their home public schools — if that school offers a particular sport. “From our hearings and appeals, we don’t think the answer is consistent with what was said … what was said today.”
While Lombardi was talking specifically about the enrollment practices of the charter schools involved in the appeal process — he mentioned three players from the Class A final went in front of the PIAA to have their appeals heard following their transfers — the charters say that isn’t the standard practice.
“We look at that issue, but my point is I don’t look at that issue based on basketball,” said Larry Jones, president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools and CEO of the Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School in Philadelphia. “I look at the issue across the entire sector for any school that’s not going about following the rules in terms of enrollment.
“And here’s the thing: If it’s done for academics to get higher test scores, that brings about more kids, that brings about more revenues. I think that is the real issue and that’s where I take exception,” Jones added.
“I understand what you’re doing here, but if it’s that much of a problem you need to raise it to this level — but on an academic level first. We’ve got to look at it both ways, but it is an issue that we want to get to the heart of.”
Those representing the charter schools — Jones; Matt Ehrlich, athletic director at Philly’s MaST Community Charter School; and Chris Shovlin, president of the board of directors for Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in Midland — said their schools have waiting lists to gain admittance and begin taking classes.
For those who may have missed the March 21 encounter — or forgotten about it — Lincoln Park defeated Math, Civics & Sciences 70-66 in the Class A final.
Lincoln Park was the school mentioned as having the multiple student-athletes making lengthy daily commutes. MC&S’ roster featured all of the new students that had enrolled since the Elephants were beaten in the 2013 semifinals.
So when Rep. Mike Reese (R-Westmoreland) asked whether any preference had been given to those involved in athletics, Ehrlich emphatically shook his head no, Shovlin talked about meeting criteria for the six academic departments at Lincoln Park and mentioned the audition needed to be accepted in several of them, and Jones detailed the application process for gaining acceptance to his school.
Reese then asked whether a standout basketball player at a traditional public school had applied to a charter school and been denied acceptance.
“I don’t have any evidence to say yea or nay to that, but I would hope the answer is yes,” Jones said. “It may sound crazy, but my hope is that’s true.
“My rationale is I love interscholastic athletics, but basketball is so far down the priority list of what our kids need today that if this kid pushed somebody else out for academics, then that’s deplorable in every case,” Jones added.
Jones earlier said 174 charter schools exist in Pennsylvania, with 120,000 youngsters attending those schools and another 40,000 trying to get in. He said that’s six or seven percent of all public education students in the state.
“If you have an issue with what you’re looking at, perhaps the real way to solve this is for the PIAA to get together with charter schools and say (1) is there a way to see if we can screen to see if there is anybody doing some type of false enrollment,” Jones said to the legislative panel.
“And (2) what type of sanctions, like banning the school for a certain amount of time, can we come across mutually so the next time we come before this body we’d be together with a real solution that you guys can help us approve.”
Jones, who exchanged business cards with Lombardi, is open to more dialogue.
“We wanted to bring some awareness to what we feel may be a tilted playing field,” Lombardi said. “We thought things went well.”
Particularly since playing by the same rules is the objective — of all concerned.
“One of the things we can do is when we talk about charter schools being laboratories of invention, it’s more than just academic and instructional techniques,” Jones said. “If we can find a way to actually look at screening for this process, why can’t that similar situation be done at the district level for Catholic schools, for everybody. Because the problem does not only exist in one sector.
“So if we can take the charge and accountability of making sure that it’s done the right way, hopefully it’ll spread throughout the entire system. So I see today could be contentious, but I’d like to look at it as an opportunity to work together.
“Both of us said that we’re up for it,” Jones added. “Now we’ve just gotta get it done.”
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