Commentary; Posted: 2/21/07
Tightening student transfer rules overdue
By Don Heinzman
The Minnesota State High School League is about to take a major step to make it harder for high school athletes, debaters and artists to transfer from their home school to another school to play with a better team or argue with a better debate team.
Under the proposed transfer rule, a student who transfers to another school after their freshman year would lose a year of varsity eligibility if their parents did not move into the new school district.
As it sits now, a star athlete can move into another school district with better coaching and better players without losing a year of eligibility and can make another transfer and only lose a half year of eligibility.
The transfer rule also applies to private schools, which have the edge because, unlike public schools, they do not have district boundaries.
The Minnesota State High School League, through its governing board and representative assembly, is a non-profit agency which regulates high school athletics and arts activities.
Already the Minnesota State High School League Board of Directors has approved the changes unanimously, and unless something unforeseen happens, the MSHSL Representative Assembly is expected to approve the new transfer rule on March 16.
For the sake of leveling the playing field for high school varsity athletics, this tightening of the transfer rule is long overdue.
Open Enrollment gives high school students an option to change high schools in different districts to enable them to get a better education in some subjects. It never was intended to enable high school varsity athletes to move to a school district to play for an all-star team with a high profile coach.
The system has been abused and coaches know it, as evidenced by the fact that of 2300 students who changed high schools in 2005-06, under open enrollment regulations, 1500 were athletes.
Under this system, a student could take classes in their home school and play a varsity sport in another without losing a year of eligibility and without the parents having to move to the district.
If they transfer a second time they lose only a half year of eligibility under the Minnesota State High School League rules.
While there are no documented cases of coaches recruiting athletes from other districts, the temptation is there.
At the same time, parents eager to have their sons and daughters playing on high profile teams encouraged the transfer, figuring they’d have a better chance of getting high school athletic scholarships. Other parents were upset because the transferring athlete was bumping their kid out of a varsity spot they’d earned on the home team.
The playing field isn’t entirely level because private schools do not have boundaries, although the one-year ineligibility rule also applies to them.
Moving from one public or private school to a private school is subject to the same rule.
There is a waiver provision for exceptional cases where an appeal can be made.
Purists will argue that transfers for athletic reasons shouldn’t be allowed because open enrollment is meant for students who want to get a better academic education.
A no-transfer rule for athletic participation isn’t going to happen. This new transfer rule should slow down the transfers for strictly athletic and artistic reasons and make parents think harder where they want their ninth graders to attend high school.
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