Utah has eyes on rules for transfers

With last week's decision to wait on enacting a "play-where-you-live" rule, the Utah High School Activities Association appears to have passed on the idea that the way to discourage athletically related transfers is to force students to play for their home schools or lose a year of eligibility.

But as my mom told me, appearances can deceive.

UHSAA officials said they plan to meet with legislators in hopes of crafting a rule that won't conflict with the state's open enrollment law, which allows students to transfer to any high school that has room for them. The only exception is transfers for athletic reasons.

As the number of transfers has risen each year, determined players, parents and coaches have found more and more loopholes in the current UHSAA rules governing transfers.

Now add to the already impossible equation charter schools. Like private schools they have no boundaries, but unlike private schools, once they're full, a lottery decides who gets in. The problem is none of them are full yet.

With changes in education and athletics, most officials agree the current rules are just not good enough. Frankly, they're not enforceable.

That's why UHSAA officials decided to look seriously at a play-where-you-live rule. Let me point out the obvious: With an open enrollment law, it is nearly impossible to restrict those who play sports to their home school. Students who don't transfer for athletic reasons often participate in sports, and they would lose those opportunities if they chose to attend school outside their home-school boundaries. No legislator who favors school choice, and that's most of Utah's legislators, will go for that.

So here's the solution, which assumes two things — we favor open enrollment and we agree students SHOULD NOT transfer for athletic reasons.

First, all students in the feeder system of a high school are automatically eligible to attend that high school. That means if my daughter wants to attend Skyline, she has to attend Churchill Junior High for at least ninth grade. Will some sports-related transfers still occur? Yes, but it will be fewer because it requires parents to be thinking a year or two ahead and to make the commitment early in the child's life.