Interesting artical about the Public/Private debate in the Advocate Messenger

[Rebel]

http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=displaystory&story_id=17999&edition_id=733&format=html

 

Vaught's Views: Statistics do favor the private schools

 

By LARRY VAUGHT

larry@amnews.com

 

Counting the three state high school football championships that private schools won over the weekend, private schools have now won nine of the 15 state team titles this high school sports year.

 

While that seems to indicate to me that private schools have a distinct advantage over public schools, recent letters to the editor by Bruce Brown and John Rogers take me to task for feeling that way.

 

They certainly are entitled to their opinions. But let's just check a couple of points they made in their letters.

 

First, Brown correctly noted that boys basketball, football and baseball have been dominated by public schools and that the Mr. Basketball, Mr. Baseball and Mr. Football winners have been dominated by public school players. He's right - even if Lexington Catholic quarterback Justin Burke should have won this year.

 

But Brown failed to note that a private school - Lexington Christian - did win the state baseball title last year, meaning private schools have won three of the last seven championships. The last time a Class A school had won the state baseball title was Paintsville in 1990. Before that it was Somerset in 1974.

 

Lexington Christian has also had five starters off that 2005 state title team sign Division I scholarships. That's more Division I signees off one team than any area school has had total in 30 years.

 

Five of the state football finalists this year were private schools. Mercer County football coach Marty Jaggers reminded me that the three public schools that did make the state football finals this year did not have a private school to compete against in their regions.

 

In addition, Brown only looked at three sports - all played by boys. He ignored the private school dominance of some female sports as well as what some like to label "minor sports" among the boys.

 

I can't do that because I think every sport is important. Brown said statistics supported his claim that private schools were not dominating state championships. However, since 1994 the public schools have won 191 titles and the private schools 142. Considering there are 233 public schools and only 45 private schools, my statistics show me that the private schools' ratio for winning state championships is far, far higher than that of the public schools.

 

Not a "mean-spirited attack on Catholic schools"Rogers noted that I had a "mean-spirited attack on Catholic schools" in my recent column. Not true. I wrote about private schools, not any particular type of private school.

 

He pointed out the strong parental support private schools have as well as the emphasis on discipline, attendance and academic rigor in private schools. He also indicated that "some of the disparity" between the success of public and private schools could be due to a "lack of funding on the part of our public schools."

 

He's right, too. Private schools have all those advantages. The private schools rightly tout those advantages daily when they are recruiting students. But that's the point. Public and private schools are not the same. Private schools can't wait to flaunt their academic success and funding advantages in one sentence and then turn around and say they have no advantages when it comes to athletics.

 

Finally, Rogers wrote the "great majority of student athletes with whom I have spoken about this issue (public and private) have no desire to see the competition between publics and privates curtailed."

 

Considering Rogers is listed as the guidance counselor at Lexington Catholic, that's no surprise. Certainly I would expect his input to indicate there is no need for a public-private split. But athletes I talk to express a different view and many favor the split.

 

In esteemed company

 

Rogers called me an "extremist" for daring to think private schools had advantages. That was really quite a compliment since it obviously puts me in esteemed company. Remember the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Delegate Assembly voted 195-78 to split public and private schools into different classifications.

 

That obviously makes athletics directors like Danville's Sam Harp, Boyle County's Jim Spears and Kentucky School for the Deaf's Paul Smiley "extremists" also since they voted for the split.

 

Funny how agreeing with the majority of schools across the state in this matter makes me an extremist in the eyes of certain private school advocates. Guess that 195-78 vote by state school officials in favor of a split must be as distorted as private schools winning nine of 15 state titles so far this year is in the eyes of some. Then again, what do we extremists know?

[BigStud]

http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=displaystory&story_id=17999&edition_id=733&format=html

 

Vaught's Views: Statistics do favor the private schools

 

By LARRY VAUGHT

larry@amnews.com

 

I can't do that because I think every sport is important.

 

Another reporter with an agenda. If every sport was as important each sport would be funded equally and be covered the same. I can't read an article that is so swayed one way.

[Rebel]

Todays paper about "Readers speak out on public-private split"

and a quote that caught my eye. :eek:

 

http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=displaystory&story_id=18088&format=html

 

 

Go statewide

 

Great job on the article on private schools. I wish you could go statewide on this. All of these private school supporters have blinders on and will never see the other side. Way to go!

 

Just thought you might also like to know that since 1999, Lexington Catholic has won state championships in football, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, and baseball.

 

 

Sam Harp

Danville High School athletics director

[All Tell]

Wow, I never knew Sam Harp was a whiner, but there you do.

[All Play No Work]

Wow, I never knew Sam Harp was a whiner, but there you do.

 

Guess it was a good thing Danville bowed out of the playoffs to a public school. Could you imagine if he now got whipped by a private school (that he beat in 2000 and 2001) ???? He would be shouting from the rooftops about the advantages NCC has except I'd be willing to bet he really couldn't come up with any.

[JC Alumni 76]

Wow, I never knew Sam Harp was a whiner, but there you do.

 

I dont think that stating the facts makes you a whiner. Maybe its just your strong convictions giving you that perception.

[All Tell]

Or maybe it's your public school as victim blinders that won't let you see people like Wilson Sears, Mark Story, Larry Vaught and now Sam Harp for the excuse making, defeatist whiners that they are.

[JC Alumni 76]

Or maybe it's your public school as victim blinders that won't let you see people like Wilson Sears, Mark Story, Larry Vaught and now Sam Harp for the excuse making, defeatist whiners that they are.

 

And what would your suggestion be to this situation? To continue to leave things the way they are and let St. X and Trintiy continue to trade state titles like they have for the last 10 years. Their is alot to be considered on this issue and its easy to say their is no issue when you know that your taking other schools best players and going to be in the state title game every year. The fact is you know NOTHING about what its like to be on the other side. I just wonder if you would feel the same way if you attended a school like maybe Meade County.

[rockmom]

And what would your suggestion be to this situation? To continue to leave things the way they are and let St. X and Trintiy continue to trade state titles like they have for the last 10 years. Their is alot to be considered on this issue and its easy to say their is no issue when you know that your taking other schools best players and going to be in the state title game every year. The fact is you know NOTHING about what its like to be on the other side. I just wonder if you would feel the same way if you attended a school like maybe Meade County.

 

 

And, you know nothing of what it's like to be a private school student, parent, teacher, alum, or booster.

 

It's easy for you to point fingers and make assumptions, but you have NO idea.

[JC Alumni 76]

And, you know nothing of what it's like to be a private school student, parent, teacher, alum, or booster.

 

It's easy for you to point fingers and make assumptions, but you have NO idea.

 

NO but i do know this 3 of the 4 state titles giving out this year in football were to privates. Already this year 9 of the 15 state titles giving out in all sports have been giving to privates. Say that you dont have an advantage of some type if you would like. But the obvious is the obvious when you only have 12 privates schools competing in the playoffs and 5 of those 12 make it to the finals while only 2 were defeated by publics its easy to be satisfied with the current system isnt it. After all Trinity does have their fair share of sucess in football i hear.

[dr1]

NO but i do know this 3 of the 4 state titles giving out this year in football were to privates. Already this year 9 of the 15 state titles giving out in all sports have been giving to privates. Say that you dont have an advantage of some type if you would like. But the obvious is the obvious when you only have 12 privates schools competing in the playoffs and 5 of those 12 make it to the finals while only 2 were defeated by publics its easy to be satisfied with the current system isnt it. After all Trinity does have their fair share of sucess in football i hear.

 

It appears that the split will not happen, but if it ever does there will be two divisions in 4-A:

 

The Private School Division (trophies provided)

 

and

 

The Sears/Proctor/Sexton Whiner Division (boxes of kleenex provided)

[rockmom]

NO but i do know this 3 of the 4 state titles giving out this year in football were to privates. Already this year 9 of the 15 state titles giving out in all sports have been giving to privates. Say that you dont have an advantage of some type if you would like. But the obvious is the obvious when you only have 12 privates schools competing in the playoffs and 5 of those 12 make it to the finals while only 2 were defeated by publics its easy to be satisfied with the current system isnt it. After all Trinity does have their fair share of sucess in football i hear.

 

 

And when boys basketball is owned by public school after public school, do you hear whining from the private schools? NO! Football is the dominant sport at some schools, basketball at others...rarely is one school blessed with that level of success in all sports.

[Play 2 Win]

I'm not in favor of splitting. However, I do believe things need to be somehow more balanced. How do we do that? I don't have a clue. I know our recent "public" high school has won the Govenor's Cup and continues to do well in all academic adventures, so I know there are public schools out there that offer solid educational choices. I don't think St X and Trinity are real good examples because I do think their Tradition plays a large roll in their continued success. However, how do you build the kind of athletic program at Lex Cath in such a short period of time? I remember when some of these schools couldn't break .500 in a season and now they are yearly powerhouses. Are they just out working the other schools? Are they headed by just superior coaching? Has someone developed some great feeder program? Or is there an underlying resource that other schools do not have? Again, I don't know the answers, but it is obvious something is different.

[All Tell]

The fact is you know NOTHING about what its like to be on the other side. I just wonder if you would feel the same way if you attended a school like maybe Meade County.

 

If you are going to start stating facts then maybe, just maybe you should know them before you do so. I happen to have a little experience on "the other side" as you put it. I am a public school graduate, and *gasp* I was a varsity head coach of a sport (not football) at a public school and I regularly got my head handed to me by private school teams (and to be fair, public school teams as well ). I was also on the football staff at that same school for about 14 years. I can state as a fact that we had more issues with students that lived in our district finding ways to attend other public schools then we did with students from our district attending private schools. So to answer you question, yes I would feel the same way if I attended a school like Meade County because in fact I did.

 

My Alma Mater beat Trinity in the state semi-finals in the early 80's (not sure of the exact year) and lost the championship game to a public school that year. In that time span they also opened the season with wins over St. X three years in a row (they are one of the few, if not the only, public school to beat X 3 years straight). Those were among the biggest football wins that that school has ever achieved. Defeatists like yourself would take those chances away from public school athletes by telling them we can't compete so we won't. Not the kind of lesson I want to teach my children.

[Play 2 Win]

How many High Schools are there in Jefferson County?