Proposal 2 Update

[Irish Wrestler 10]

This was posted on the Courier Journal's Web Page today.  Thought some might be interested.

Public-private schools' sports plan 'deficient'

By C. Ray Hall

chall@courier-journal.com

The Courier-Journal

 

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A controversial plan that would cost many high school athletes a year of sports eligibility received a stinging rebuke today from a legislative subcommittee that declared the idea "deficient" in a 6-0 vote.

The plan, called Proposal 2, would create athletic territories for private schools similar to those imposed on public schools. It grew out of public schools' view that private schools have an edge in athletics.

Generally, students who spent seventh and eighth grade in one school system and transferred to a different system or high school would be ineligible to compete in sports as freshmen but could practice with their teams.

The version of the proposal the committee considered came from the 11-member Kentucky Board of Education. That group voted 9-2 for a compromise that lessened the penalties in a proposal from the Kentucky High School Athletics Association from one year of no sports participation at all.

Sen. Dick Roeding, a Northern Kentucky Republican who is co-chairman of the administrative regulation review subcommittee condemned the idea.

"It is particularly disappointing to see such a bad idea come from an agency to educate our children," Roeding said.

The committee's vote left the future of the measure unclear. The deficient vote doesn't necessarily mean the end of Proposal 2, which would first apply to students who enter seventh grade in the 2008-09 school year. It still faces review from House-Senate education committee next month, and Gov. Ernie Fletcher may also get involved.