May 3, 2018 4 min read

Which of these basketball teams do you think would have a competitive advantage: one made up of athletes from a single community, or one that can draw players from all around the area? It’s the second team, of course, and that’s exactly the kind of inequity that exists in Pennsylvania high school athletics when public schools have to compete against private, Catholic and charter schools.

And according to a new survey of WPIAL members, this hasn’t been lost on the folks at the public schools in this part of the state.

The survey, as reported on the other day by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, found that nearly 90 percent of responding schools in the WPIAL (the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League) want public schools and nonpublic schools to have separate sports playoffs.

The P-G story said the survey “was prompted by mounting complaints from coaches, athletic directors and superintendents around the state that nonboundary (private, Catholic and charter) schools have a competitive advantage because they can draw students from anywhere, while public schools can only take students from their geographical districts.”

Tim O’Malley, executive director of the WPIAL, told the P-G that the survey was conducted at the request of New Castle School District.

“What has happened is the survey has demonstrated that the vast majority of people feel the schools that don’t have boundaries have a much more competitive advantage,” said O’Malley.

That’s not exactly a shocking assessment. It’s just common sense.

Are players at these “nonboundary” schools just naturally more athletically talented than their public school counterparts? Do they work harder to improve their athletic skills? Are their coaches simply better than those at public schools? The general answer to all of those questions is “no.” The reason that private, Catholic and charter schools are over-represented, based on their numbers, in sports playoff brackets in Pennsylvania is that they can draw players from wherever they please. It’s called recruiting.

New Castle officials also are taking the issue to the state level and have a meeting scheduled with state Sen. Jay Costa of Allegheny County, who is on the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association oversight committee.

The PIAA’s executive director, Bob Lombardi, told the P-G he has shared the results of the WPIAL survey with members of the PIAA board of directors, but he said that ultimately, it will be up to the state Legislature to make any move to separate the championship tournaments. It was the General Assembly that made private and Catholic schools members of the PIAA in 1972.

“We believe the interpretation of the law is to treat all members the same,” said Lombardi. “That’s what our board has done. If the General Assembly wants to make a new law, we will follow whatever the law is.”

As much as the PIAA might strive for fairness in its dealings with public and nonpublic schools, the fact is that the system, itself, is now treating public schools unfairly. They operate at a distinct disadvantage.

Of course, as anyone who has spent even a little time watching our state Legislature can tell you, getting that group to take timely and effective action on any issue is difficult, even if it’s passage of a state budget (unless it’s an election year, when lawmakers’ prime objective is to look efficient so they can get re-elected).

But it should be clear to members of the Legislature, and anyone else of fair mind, that it’s long past time to level the playing fields.