House Votes For Tighter Controls For FHSAA

April 25, 2013

The nearly century-old organization that oversees high school athletics in Florida may be entering its final years of eligibility.

The House approved a measure (HB 1279) on Wednesday, in a bi-partisan 89-26 vote, that gives student-athletes more flexibility as to where they play and requires the Florida High School Athletic Association to more closely follow the wishes of the Legislature or be replaced.

The Senate must still take up the measure, either taking up the House bill on the floor or take up a nearly similar proposal (SB 1164) offered by Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland.

Backers of the changes say the overhaul is needed as the FHSAA has used its authority in an arbitrary manner that has overreached when investigating student eligibility and claim the measure could help prevent some students from dropping out by expanding athletic opportunities.

“One hundred years of being an organization doesn’t make you right, it does make you powerful,” said Rep. Elizabeth Porter, R-Lake City.

Opponents contend the matter is a “playground fight” that has been elevated to the Capitol chambers by Lakeland-area lawmakers due to fines imposed against Lakeland High School after students were ruled ineligible to play for infractions ranging from falsifying addresses to receiving impermissible benefits that included free rent.

The opponents say the legislation will also invite frequent transfers, and force administrators and teachers to continually readjust academic plans for students who jump campus to campus.

“This is an awful, awful bill,” said Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach. “It’s important we have a good athletic association. To turn it upside down and make it a free agency is something that is disgusting.”

The measure places new restrictions on investigations by the FHSAA, expands the ability for students to transfer schools during the school year, alters the makeup of the board of directors, would give school districts more say over athletic regulations in each county, and sets a 2017 date to sunset the 93-year-old organization.

The overhaul gives charter and home school students more opportunities to play for public and private school teams, gives students the right to try out at schools for a sport that is not offered by their own school, and expands representation on the FHSAA board to charter school, home school and non-public school members and the Florida Athletic Coaches Association.

“We’re not messing with anything that we’re not already messing with currently in law,” Stargel said. “We already set up who the board is. We have the authority to set up who the board is. We already have the ability to dictate bylaws. We’re not changing that now.”

The bill also requires the Legislature to replace the FHSAA by July 2017. If no replacement is found, the commissioner of education could extend the deadline by four years.

By The News Service of Florida

Comments

One Response to “House Votes For Tighter Controls For FHSAA”

  1. elijah bell on April 25th, 2013 10:00 am

    Well it looks like the Florida Legislature and the FHSAA couldn’t come up with a way to handle or manage the problems that arose over the last few years. Now I don’t know if either tried very hard or not but it didn’t happen. It looks like that both maybe were too hard headed and as it stands the Legislature won. Personally I don’t think they know what a big job it is to conduct the business of athletics in the state of Florida. I also don’t think the FHSAA was maybe open enough to change. So what will happen now is up in the air. You can’t just let student athletics go and come at will and you also can’t make rules that prohibit student athletics the opportunity to participate in an organization that is built on fairness. It will take a couple of things I believe to make this an opportunity to make it better for all those involved. One will be a leader who steps forward and re-evaluates what is best and fair for all potential athletes if Florida. Next will be an organization that works in partnership with the Legislature because they have now entered the picture as never before. There are thousands of student athletes in Florida and hundreds of schools and all will have to be considered when this is all comes together. Having been a teacher, parent and coach for over 30 years I know it won’t be easy and everyone won’t be happy all the time but anything less than a 100% effort by those involved would be a shame.

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