It is only the start of a legislative process, but it appears someone in Harrisburg is finally listening to the public school leaders who are seeking fairness in the PIAA playoff formats. State Representative Scott Conklin of Centre County says he will introduce a bill to separate public schools from private schools in the state playoffs.
Despite study after study showing that the playoffs are tilted heavily in favor of private – or “non-boundary” – schools, the PIAA has refused to make substantial changes, claiming a 1972 state law requires that private and charter schools must compete with the public schools in the playoffs.
After a breakaway group of school officials threatened to pull out of the PIAA last summer, they met with the PIAA in November. The PIAA said in December that it “recognizes that fairness issues exist”, but that it believes there are “alternatives to segregated tournaments”.
Private schools may use students from anywhere, even overseas, and are not bound by the same enrollment rules as public schools, which creates a competitive disadvantage for the public schools.
Representative Conklin will hold a news conference tonight in State College to talk about his bill.
