Trinity alum

We get personal because it is personal. Keepers made herself and Manual a target by getting out infront on this and by allowing herself to be quoted in the paper being so completely misinformed. Your are right. It is something as simple as high school sports. Keep(ers) the misinformed, know nothings out of it.

Yes I believe that they do scout. And by the way, in this part of the state I don't believe that there are any public school leagues. It is also my understanding that public school coaches scout both youth leagues and Catholic leagues. I would like to put a stop to it. I am in favor of tougher rules that would eliminate chasing kids because they are athletes, even if it is done under some other pretense. If someone wants to put forward some proposals for that I'll welcome them. The question was about financial aid. Financial aid is handled according to very strict rules and sports aren't part of the equation.

If you read what I posted you would know that I postulated four legs under Catholic education. Then I said that I believe that the JCPS are attempting an assault on two of the four legs. The reasons why a student and his or her parents choose a school are none of my business and none of yours. Snide comments about parents that find discrimination against their children in sports offensive placing the value of an education second are illogical and do little to further the discussion. It isn't about what you value, it is about treating our children fairly.

The very simple answer is that the financial aid procedures are the same for athletes and non athletes. Period. The financial aid service has no idea who the students are or if they play a sport. I know this is hard for some to believe, but that is the way it is. It always seems that everyone has a relative that knows the friend of a parent whose kid knows someone who once met someone who has it on good authority that there is a rumor that something could be going on.

There is no KHSAA restriction on where you play until after you have played in a varsity contest. The KHSAA would not have any rule against it.

Every public school district in the state is free to admit students from out of district and charge them tuition. Most choose not to. After all, how many people would pay tuition to attend a public school.

She not only is one of the leaders, she is totally misinformed about how financial aid works. If this is what they choose to lead the JCPS best and brightest, how sad.

There are a lot of different reasons why people choose a private school, but I think that in general they fall into four categories academic, athletic, discipline and religious: Academic: The JCPS have segregated top students into Manual and Male. That gives them the ability to argue that JCPS are "just as good as the private schools. The part they leave out is that for every top school they create they also allow some really bad schools to exist. Athletic: They tried to create an athletic powerhouse at Male by providing it with top notch facilities at the same time other schools (Central) had no facilities. While Male has been very successful, they still can't pass the big private schools. So now the JCPS will vote to kick the private schools out. I see this as an assault on the Catholic schools. They are trying to saw off two legs of a four legged stool. Rather than trying to improve all of their schools they are creating a couple of show schools so that they can make the claim that they are competing. What I don't understand is why the have not schools allow themselves to be used like this. If they kick out the private schools, the have not schools will not do any better. They will just lose to one of the chosen public schools. I'm telling you, these people will pay at the ballot box.

If these travesties pass I think that it will be important to let all members of the legislature know that we vote and will be watching what they do to rotect all children. I hope that the elected members of the Jefferson County Board of Education aren't too attached to their jobs. These proposals are an assault on Catholic education. At a time when the public schools should be looking at ways to improve their own product, they are instead trying to damage the alternative. Any members of the political class that doesn't stand up to stop this nonsense will earn my everlasting disdain.

Even though you won't read this, I'll respond anyway. It is a fact that public schools can open their system to students from outside their district. It is a fact that in most of the districts that do open their borders, the number of applicants is low. Why the number is low is a matter for opinion. Why the number of districts that are open to out of district students is also a matter of opinion.

If you consider calling very fine people liars and cheats hitting close to home then you are right, you hit very close to home. You get on here and spout about what you know. Report it. I'll let you in on a secret. If I found my school cheating I'd report it. I don't want my school to cheat. It doesn't. It is that simple.

There is an insinuation in that letter that private schools offer financial aid to students based on athletic ability. I think that their comparison to NCAA scholarship limits may be apt. College teams are divided based on the amount of financial aid they are able to offer. In high school it is a little different. If you attend a private school and you qualify for financial aid, you may apply to receive up to 50 percent of the tuition. If you attend a public school, the tuition is free. So the comparison is apt. Private schools charge their students, public schools don't. The privates are Division III, the publics are Division IA. What is killing them is that the Division IA schools keep losing to the Division III schools. Let's look at the real competitive situation. If you are unable to pay the complete cost of a high school education, you have three choices. You can attend a private school and apply for financial aid. You will have to fill out financial aid forms. Those aid forms will not include your name or anything else that would identify your athletic ability. If you are found to need aid, you may receive up to half of the cost of the tuition. You will have to come up with the rest on your own. I think that what Dr. Mullin had to say in yesterdays paper should open some eyes. He said that despite the fact that the financial aid service had determined that some students qualified for 100 percent aid, no student receives more than 50 percent. He also said that the gap between what was needed based on the outside review service and what they were able to offer was $700,000. That is a shocking number and I call on all members of the Trinity family to help close that gap. If you choose to attend a public school you can go for free to the school in your district. Your third choice is to attend a public school outside your district. If you choose to do that there may be some tuition charged. In general it will be far less than the tuition charged by private schools. The public district may not choose to accept you. They are free to accept you, but some choose not to. Now, based on this, why do students and their families choose a private education? It would appear that they think that there is a value to the private school that is worth what it will cost them. I agree. Public school districts have the option of opening their schools to students from any location and charging them tuition. Most choose not to. Why? There is only one explanation that I can see. Most of them don't think that anyone will want to pay tuition to attend a public school. They should ask themselves why.

Bigzig, That statement is an absolute, barefaced lie. I can't say it any clearer than that. Since I am sure that no member of BGP would intentionally lie, I have to assume you are grossly misinformed. When you repeat that lie you are calling into question the integrity of some very fine people. Look at the quotes from Dr. Mullin is this mornings CJ. He states very clearly that no students receive aid based on athletic ability and no student receives more than 50 percent aid. Are you calling him a liar? If so, step up and say it. Either what you said is wrong or you have accused this very fine man of lying. Which is it?

This is the problem with agreeing to any limit. When twenty doesn't work someone will sugest five, then one.

I like the amendment better than the alternative, but I don't like it much. I'm never comfortable with negotiating something that only makes a wrong less wrong. It is sort of like saying yes, but only if you buy me dinner first.

No, I don't think OJ should have been playing high school ball or that Michelle Wie either. Let them play with their age group. I wish the legislature would stay out of those kinds of decisions (at least until we start lobbying them to kill Prop 20).

In general I don't like it that middle school players are playing for the high school team. They should be playing on an age appropriate team.

I think that kids that play on a high school team at any level, frosh, jv or varsity, should be subject to the transfer rules. That would include middle school players. I have also suggested that all contact between prospective students and any member of the coaching staff or athletic department be prohibited outside a closely supervised in school setting.

There is a very simple reason why that isn't part of the proposal. A lot more kids move from private schools to public schools than move the other way.

My kids are out of school, but I would have sued in a heartbeat if any of these discriminatory proposals had affected one of my kids. The 20 mile limit is discriminatory in that it only applies to private schools. It is arbitrary in that there is no basis for it. It is illogical in that it will do nothing to change the competitive balance. I think that those schools that vote for these proposals had better be ready to defend them in court. I think they will be very hard to defend. And let's be clear about it. If the KHSAA has to spend a lot of money defending lawsuits and that hurts the students of Kentucky, it will be those that voted for these proposals that are at fault, not the people that are only defending their children from discrimination.

I agree with your logic, and I'll take it one step farther. If you attend a school that doesn't win very much you should just live with it. After all, if you are worried about whether your team wins your priorities are not in order. Yes this was intended to be sarcastic.

Also very little change for Jefferson County. I think that Prop 1 will punish a very few kids, do little to fix the perceived problems and generate a lawsuit from kids that are outside the limit. Other than that it sounds good.

I think that enacting the 20 mile rule is a bad idea. First it would have almost no effect on competitive balance, so in a couple of years we are right back where we started. Second, as worded it only applies to private schools. That makes it blatant discrimination. Third, A very large number of people do not live within 20 miles of any private school and most especially do not live within 20 miles of the religious school of their choice. I think that the parents of some such kid would sue and win. I am glad that the two sides are talking. If the publics are worried about athletic based recruiting, I think that a very reasonable compromise would be to remove the coaches and athletic officials from any contact with any prospective student, except in a supervised school setting. If the coaches can't talk to prospective students, they can't very well recruit them for athletics. Since most coaches are also teachers, some contact would happen during shadow visits and that sort of thing. Those visits should be supervised to make sure that athletic recruiting is not on the agenda.

The schools that win put great effort into all sports, with the same result. What is unfair about that?

Winning does NOT constitute proof of unfair advantage. If you look at the time money and effort that winning schools put into their programs, that will be the single largest factor. In girls sports, the Louisville Catholic girls schools have had extensive sports programs for at least sixty years, long before Title IX "made" them do it. The Louisville area Catholic grade schools have huge sports programs for boys and girls. Those things translate into wins, but there is not one thing about them that is unfair.