Athletic transfers bill moves

Right now students can attend any high school they choose on two conditions — there is room at the school and the reason for the transfer is not athletics.

Senator Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain, wants to change that.

"I realize that I am committing heresy in some circles, but I think the Legislature should at least have this discussion," he told the Senate's Standing Education Committee Thursday morning. "I want to create a more laissez faire environment. Let the programs and athletes seek each other out. Let the students go where there is the best fit."

Madsen told the committee, which passed SB223 out of committee with a favorable recommendation 4-2, that students who want to transfer for athletic reasons "should not be discriminated against."

The current rules and policy, he said, "creates an incompatibility." Madsen pointed out that there are talented athletes who may live in the boundary of a school that has a marginal program and may want to transfer to a school with a more successful or compatible program so they can better "highlight" their skills and "maybe even earn a scholarship."

On the other hand, he said, there are students who are not particularly athletic who live in the boundaries of a school that has a top-notch program and "despite their best effort and diligence, would never see a single down." They, too, should be allowed to transfer to a school where they might have the opportunity to play.

The Utah High School Activities Association and Utah PTA representatives spoke against the bill.

"Laissez faire is a great economic concept," said UHSAA associate director Bart Thompson. It will not work in this situation, however, "because the student is not only a consumer, they're also a resource and also a product of the school. If we allow students to transfer for athletic reasons, they will become even more of a resource, rather than a consumer."

He said the ability of students to transfer for athletic reasons would degrade "the vast majority of programs."

"That's exactly what we're in the business of preventing," Thompson said. "We're attempting to create as level a playing field as possible."

UHSAA attorney Mark Van Wagoner called the bill an attempt by some legislators to control high school athletics from afar.