Lege Should Leave UIL Alone
This should infuriate every person who ever competed in a UIL activity while in high school in Texas:
Texas lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow private schools unprecedented access into the state’s public school extracurricular league, a move that many public school officials believe would harm their programs.
A chief promoter of the proposal has been San Antonio mega-church pastor John Hagee, founder of Cornerstone Christian Schools and an active force in state and national politics.
The proposal would open the door to membership in the University Interscholastic League, the vanguard of Texas public high school extra-curricular activities since 1909. Hagee’s school filed a federal lawsuit against the UIL earlier this year, claiming religious discrimination for keeping Cornerstone from joining.
The legislative measure could bring about a much quicker opening into the UIL than the lawsuit, which typically takes years to resolve.
And the proposal seems to have momentum.
The Senate passed the measure 28-3 on April 27. A similar version sponsored by Rep. Frank Corte, R-San Antonio, is before a House committee. Corte said he believes the measure has enough support from the committee to bring it before a full vote by the House next week. The session ends May 28.
Let the Hagee suit run its course. And, if the state loses, it should challenge it because private and parochial schools should never be allowed to compete in UIL activities. I don’t even think Dallas Jesuit, who was alowed into UIL some years ago, should be there. It’s wrong.
Private schools aren’t held to the same accountability standards as public schools, nor are they on the same financial playing field as public schools. One private school with a wealthy sugar daddy (cough, cough…James Leininger) could come to dominate all things UIL—from football to band to number sense—simply because they can offer scholarships and recruit and do things public schools can’t.
Supposedly, Texas is one of three states where private schools aren’t allowed to compete in UIL-type events. And, that’s fine by me. That’s the only form of discrimination I support: keep private schools private, keep public schools public, and keep private schools the hell out of UIL activities.
The public schools and all things related were founded and are funded by state money for a reason: to give all of the state’s students an opportunity for an education and all things that go along with it. In my opinion, once you place your child in a private school for whatever reason, you forego the opportunity to compete on the same level as public school students. And that’s the parent’s and student’s choice. Don’t make the decision and then come crying and bitching and moaning because your school’s football team can’t play Midland Lee or TAAPS doesn’t offer ‘Ready Writing,’ or whatever.
And, of course, this legislation exists even though most private schools have no interest in it, save Hagee (whose school is ethically compromised itself):
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 The Texas Association of Private Parochial Schools— TAPPS — cited Cornerstone for league violations on several occasions and did not renew its membership last fall.
The TAPPS ban was precipitated by allegations of recruiting and improper inducements afforded to the school’s high-powered basketball team, which was stocked almost entirely with out-of-state and international transfers. The program since has been disbanded in favor of a team based on local players.
The school also ran afoul of TAPPS after recruiting five Mexican players, including future NBA player Eduardo Najera, for the 1994-95 season. Cornerstone was barred from TAPPS before suing for and receiving reinstatement in 2000.
[...]
TAPPS director Edd Burleson said a recent survey of the organization’s roughly 250 members revealed little interest in joining the UIL.
“While there may be isolated cases of private schools joining the UIL,” he said, “I do not believe there will be a mass exodus from TAPPS to the UIL.”
That Cornerstone mess reminds me of Bill Clements and SMU in the 1980s, and that isn’t a good thing.
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