Trinity alum

That's fine, but when you say that it is okay to discriminate against athletes in awarding financial aid there is nothing to stop them from changing the percentage.

I would love to keep athletics out of the courts, but any proposal that discriminates against our kids will be litigated. The litigation will be long and expensive. For those that back these proposals because they don't like to play against the Trinity and X football teams, wait until you have to face our combined legal and political teams.

I think that this is the real heart of the issue. I truly believe that many of the public school administrators feel that they somehow own these kids. There are lots of kids that come out of Catholic grade schools and go on to public high schools. If it was done for economic reasons, I'm sorry that we haven't done a better job of raising money to make our schools more affordable. If it was done for other reasons, including the individual families assesment of where their best academic and athletic success could be achieved, good luck to you, and I wish you every success. I wish that public school administrators would have the same attitude toward the kids that attend public schools for some portion of their academic career.

Jim Sexton hates the Louisville Catholic schools. Did you catch the bomb he buried in proposal 10? If you aren't from a "feeder school" you can't receive financial aid. Thus public school kids can't apply for financial aid at a private school and still play sports. There is nothing in his proposal that prevents kids from a private school from applying to a public school and receiving a tuition free education and playing sports without penalty. The other part of his proposal limits financial aid to 75 percent. I don't think that this has much practical significance, but it is wrong. If you can limit it to 75 percent you can also limit it to 10 percent or 1 percent. I don't have any problem with applying the transfer rules to the younger kids. I wouldn't let kids below high school play on the high school team at all in any sport. I would also extend the transfer rule to apply to kids that have participated in sports at any level, not just the varsity.

Single sex schools tend to remove some distractions. It creates an atmosphere where participation is the norm. I think it is a bigger factor for the girls schools than it is for the boys. When my daughter was in high school about 80 girls showed up to try out for field hockey and softball FRESHMAN teams.

If you are the Trinity baseball team that is exactly what you do.

Prior to 1988 4A was set up so that all Jefferson County teams were in one side of the bracket and all teams from outside Jefferson County were in the other side. Thus every year there was one Jefferson County team and one team from the rest of the state in the finals. By 1988 two things had happened. The first was that there were complaints that the structure of the finals guaranteed Jefferson County a team in the finals. The other was that consolidation had created enough 4A schools outside Jefferson County that the number of 4 A schools outside Jefferson County was significantly larger than the number in Jefferson County. The structure was changed to give a roughly equal east west split to the structure. That is the same system used today.

See post 254.

The geographic distribution of the 4A regions is a completly different subject, but if you put all of the 4A teams on a map the current breakdown looks like it makes sense.

I'm sorry to be obtuse, but I just don't understand what you are talking about or what any of this has to do with kicking the private schools out. What is it you are proposing?

That change took place in 1988. Before that there was a 4A team from Jefferson County inthe finals and one from the rest of the state.

But what does that have to do with kicking the private schools out? Trinity and Male have played in the finals three times in recent years. Does that mean that Male should be kicked out too? For that matter Boyle County and Danville have been there a lot too. Do they need to be kicked out?

What are the facts? Maybe that would be a good place to start. From my point of view, the KHSAA has rules that cover, recruiting, transfers and financial aid. I believe that those rules are fair and reasonable. I also believe that the private schools follow those rules and that if they, or any other school violates those rules the punishment should be swift and severe. Do you disagree with any of that? If so, which part?

My guess is that football finals are in Louisville for the same reason that basketball is in Lexington - money. I don't think that Louisville gets a disproportionate share of state championship events. The only one is football isn't it? That doesn't seem like so much for the states largest city. Also, what will kicking the privates out of the KHSAA do to move the state finals out of Louisville.

You bring up a good point, politics. Educators in the heavily Catholic parts of the state had better pay attention to what is going on here. I will make this vow. Any polititian that doesn't act to stop this know nothing assault on our children will feel my wrath at the ballot box. And I suspect that a lot of other Catholic voters will remember too.

What is that stigma? You have made several allusions to some perceived misconduct on the part of private schools. Spell it out. Don't hide behind rolling eyes. If you have a charge to make, make it. A couple of years ago, everyone was "sure" that there was something going on with a player at Lex Cath. It was investigated and there was nothing there.

I've never heard of June Buchanan, but I'll go out on a limb and say that that they aren't the motivation behind this proposal. As far as your comment about students in need that are talented athletes, I believe that this is the heart of the problem. There is a widespread belief out there that the private schools are offering financial aid on the basis of athletic ability. For the umpteenth time, that type of aid is against the rules and it just doesn't happen. If there is any school out there breaking this rule, turn them in and I will be the first to support severe punishment. At Trinity over forty percent of the students receive financial aid. The amount of aid is determined based on financial forms submitted to an out of state service that does not know the name of the applicant or anything about the applicants athletic ability. That is what the rules require and that is what we do. It is as simple as that.

I think there is a meeting next week to finish the wording. I've been going on the newspaper articles.

That was last years proposal. This year it is a separate division for private schools.

Thank-you for the kind words. I am a strong believer that competition makes everyone better. That is why Trinity and x are good for each other. I don't think that open boundaries would put any but the worst schools out of business and maybe that isn't such a bad thing. In Kentucky, the state constitution prevents education money from being spent on any schools other than the public schools, so we won't be seeing state money spent on private schools until here is a constitutional amendment. With regard to funding, I don't buy the argument that the establishment clause prohibits funding of private religious schools. Students at religious affiliated colleges routinely receive federal funding through grants and loans. I don't see the difference in the earlier years of education.

The problem is that there are only a very limited number of private schools. In 4A there are two. In 3A, there are two. It just doesn't work. I for one don't buy the argument that the smaller schools should just work harder. In the long run it is going to be hard for a school with 300 boys to compete in football with a school with 1450. That only makes sense, but the answer isn't to throw the school with 1450 students out. All of the other claimed advantages of the private schools are available to public schools, but for, in some cases, very good reasons of economics and public policy, they choose not to make those choices available to their students. Take Jefferson and Oldham counties as an example. The Jefferson County schools could allow Oldham County kids to attend and the Oldham County schools could allow Jefferson County kids to attend. Each could charge whatever they see as appropriate tuition. Do they? Will they? Would it be good policy for the rapidly growing Oldham County schools to allow Jefferson County kids to attend? I don't have an answer to those questions, but I do know that the answer is not to punish the kids that have made the choice to attend a private school that works very hard to be successful in all things. Trinity will get a great deal of publicity this weekend when the formal opening of Marshall Stadium takes place. That is as it should be. One of the questions that has been asked is why did it take ten years to get this stadium built? The answer is that Trinity very properly spent money first on expanding and upgrading the academic facilities to meet the demands of 21st century education and a rapidly growing enrollment. Why should that type of success get our kids kicked out?

They want us to define a region. That sounds good, but what does it mean? Schools like Trinity, X, Sacred Heart and Assumption are regional schools. Our "region" includes a very wide area and the kids from that wide area are not just athletes. They have also mentioned defined feeder schools. I assume that they would want to define the feeder schools as only Catholic schools. Does that mean that the local public schools will also have to define their feeder schools? Does that mean that the kids that attend a Catholic grade school could no longer play sports for a public high school? From our parish, the largest number of kids attend Ballard for high school. The rest attend Waggener, Male, Manual, Eastern, Trinity, X, Sacred Heart, Assumption, Mercy and Presentation. I may have left someone out. Which high school are we a feeder school for?

Please cite the KHSAA rules that apply to public schools but do not apply to private schools. In fact please cite ANY KHSAA rules that are different.

It is a choice and what is wrong with that? A school like Trinity should never become a haven for just the rich. By eliminating financial aid that is exactly what you are saying. If the choice comes down to abandoning the KHSAA or abandoning forty percent of our kids, the choice is easy. You know, I think I just came up with a solution that would solve all of these problems. Any schools that don't like it that the KHSAA championships are open to all schools should leave. Then they could do whaterver they wanted.

I absolutely agree with you. There is no way that the kid that gets their main meals of the day at school should be told that they can't play sports. And there is also no way that a kid whose parents can't afford the full tuition at Trinity should be told that either.