Without a doubt, the most feedback I received this year has been public-private school debate. The overwhelming sentiment has been that public schools are at a competitive disadvantage against their private counterparts.
Whether school administrators, coaches, parents or regular fans, people are upset. Make no mistake; the IHSA has been getting bombarded with complaints about the situation, as an athletic director from outside this area recently shared with me.
This gentleman has been around the business for decades and was really miffed and made his feelings known to the IHSA. We both agreed that there is no clear-cut solution, save for separating the publics and privates.
One item he brought up that I hadn’t considered was the IHSA opting to go with predetermined enrollment cutoffs instead of a percentage cutoff, which had been in place since 2007. When the two-class system started in 1971, the dividing line between A and AA was 750 students.
By knowing the exact cutoffs in advance, the potential exists for private schools to keep enrollment under that cutoff point to avoid moving up a class. Public schools don’t have that temptation, as they need to accept all students in their district.
For both publics and privates, there is a huge advantage of being one of the larger schools in a classification compared to being the smallest in one. Another factor that skews enrollment in a private school’s favor is the fact they enroll higher echelon achievers, so per capita, they are getting more bang for the buck.
Of area interest, key numbers are 300 and 600. The difference between 1A and 2A in baseball, basketball, softball and volleyball is 300 and 600 for 2A and 3A.
Forreston (242) and Polo (176) are safely in 1A; with Byron (465), Oregon (444) and Stillman Valley (433) in the middle of 2A. Rochelle (863) remains in 3A.
Other than Stillman, all schools have remained fairly constant in enrollment since the last IHSA count two years ago. Meanwhile, Stillman dropped from 504 to 433.
In the Big Northern conference, a huge drop was Rockford Christian from 305 to 200. You have to question whether that dormitory they built for international students is getting any use.
And, it makes sense that RC was forced to drop 11-man football. Yes, there are plenty of private schools that struggle to be competitive in certain sports.
Also, in their defense, many of them are in a battle to keep enrollments up or even keep schools afloat. So, it really isn’t fair to wage an all-out assault on them in the public-private debate.
While we’re on the discussion of school enrollments, I was disgusted to hear of a proposal that was passed in an Illinois House committee called the Homestead Act. In effect, it would impose strict regulations on parents that home-school their children, from which there has been a rise of 2.5 million in 2019 to 3.7 million today.
For each public school student in Illinois, $22,000 is spent. Home-schoolers do it without outside funding. In a state riddled by mediocre education outcomes in public schools, why go after the good families that have chosen to escape the pitfalls of that?
This from the Wall Street Journal: “Now that the state politicians have completely destroyed the public education system, they are going after the escapees.”
I don’t have precise data, but I sense that home-schoolers are better prepared for academic challenges than their public counterparts.
Fortunately, the public has sat up and taken notice, with 50,000 voters filing witness slips against the Homestead Act versus 1,000 in favor of.
Remember a few years ago when some nosy, misguided state politicians tried to interfere in IHSA affairs. Wisely, the courts told them to mind their own business.
Is it any wonder there is so much distrust and lack of respect for government in Illinois?
Another subject that has touched a nerve among area sports fans is the Illinois House of Representatives passing a bill that prohibits K-12 schools in the state from using a Native American name, logo or mascot.
Before it can become a law, it needs goes to vote in the Senate.
The following schools could be impacted: Hononegah, Pecatonica, Winnebago, Marengo, Dakota (all Indians), Stockton Blackhawks, South Beloit Sobos and Warren Warriors.
Andy Colbert is a longtime Ogle County resident with years of experience covering sports and more for multiple area publications.
