Free Market Friday: OSSAA rule harms students

Each year, parents pay for children to attend sports camps. They may be surprised to learn the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) now treats camp attendance as an excuse to ban students from playing any sport for a year.

It’s an idiotic rule adopted for no good reason, and it’s only a matter of time until the OSSAA loses a challenge in court.

Under OSSAA’s Rule 24, if a student attends a sports camp and later transfers or moves into a public-school district that employs a coach who worked at that camp, the student is barred from participating in any sports at his or her new school for a year.

So, if you attend a basketball camp and move into the “wrong” district, you’re also banned from playing football or baseball or running track.

The OSSAA claims this reduces “recruitment” of student athletes.

That ignores the reality of youth athletics today. Students routinely attend camps to hone their skills or ensure that students are doing something productive, and coaches are free to pursue those work opportunities.

Also, Oklahoma law allows open transfer between districts, so long as an admitting school has capacity. The OSSAA’s rule undermines that law.

Furthermore, families move all the time. At least $265.8 million in taxpayer funds is spent annually on the salaries of athletic staff at public schools (and far more is spent on athletic facilities). The families who pay those taxes should get the benefit. If a child legally attends a school district, that child should be allowed to participate in sports (pursuant to academic eligibility) period.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond has sent the OSSAA a “cease and desist” letter, saying enforcement of this rule “lends itself for arbitrary and capricious enforcement and to confused compliance.”

The OSSAA has already dealt with one prominent lawsuit linked to banning a student from participating in sports. While living with his mother, Kayleb Barnett attended Broken Arrow. When he moved to live with his father, he was in the Jenks district. OSSAA then tried to prevent Barnett from playing sports at Jenks. OSSAA backed down after Barnett’s family sued.

Courts have held that OSSAA is a state actor. If this nonsense is the best OSSAA has to offer, it may be time that state officials allow another group to take its place.

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs ( www.ocpathink.org ).

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