Rebutting the governor
Bills surfacing to give school districts power to make decision not governor
Some state legislators want their say in high school sports debate.
Politicians are now getting involved in the debate of whether there should be school sports this fall in Pennsylvania, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
A group of legislators had a news conference Tuesday morning to announce bills they are proposing about school sports for the 2020-21 year.
State Rep. Mike Reese, RWestmoreland/Somerset, introduced a bill that would allow Pennsylvania school districts and school boards
— and not Gov. Tom Wolf — to make decisions regarding whether their students can participate in sports and other extracurricular activities.
Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford/Franklin/Fulton, unveiled legislation that would allow students and families to have an additional year to make up for any loss of education instruction or sports competition that they feel was lost during the 2019-20 and 202021 school years.
Part of Topper’s idea is basically calling for an extra year of sports eligibility for student-athletes if they want to have it.
PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi has said emphatically in the past few months that the PIAA is against an extra year of eligibility.
The legislation was put together in the past five days after Wolf commented last Thursday that he and the Pennsylvania departments of health and education believe that all school sports should be postponed until at least Jan. 1, 2021.
“I was personally taken aback by the governor’s comments,” Reese said.
Last Friday, one day after Gov. Wolf’s comments, the PIAA board of directors met and voted to postpone the start of fall sports in Pennsylvania for two weeks while they try to change Wolf’s mind about his recommendation.
“I think we need to let them play as best they can,” Reese said. “This bill would guarantee that school boards make the decisions [about playing sports]. Not the governor, not us, but those locally elected officials on the ground.”
But after Wolf’s comments last Thursday, the departments of health and education issued guidelines that they said are not mandates to schools, but merely recommendations. The departments said individual school districts should make the ultimate decisions about fall sports. Many on the PIAA and WPIAL board of directors, however, believe school districts and boards will not go against recommendations from the governor or departments of health and education. The
WPIAL is governed by the PIAA.
“If a family feels their child or children are not attaining the acceptable educational experiences, then they have the right to ask the school district for an extra year,” Topper said.
Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, the majority leader of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives also spoke at the news conference and said, “We hope the PIAA will stand strong because we stand behind them.”