Two areas I'm familiar with are the Waterloo & Davenport school districts and any good athlete goes to CF or Bettendorf. The parents will pick up and move across town for their son/daughter to play at a better program and I don't blame them when these schools compete for state championships every year.
Level the playing field in HS athletics
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I live in an area with 2 good options (one public, one Catholic) and I can't remember a single kid in the past 15 years moving from one to the other for sports. The Catholic school has probably been more successful in that period, though not always, and probably has people thinking they recruit since they've been to State in a few sports. But unless they're recruiting at 3 years old, it's not happening. The difference we see is the support some of the sports get from the parents. Maybe since they're paying the extra tuition they feel they have more skin in the game? At a typical golf meet, for example, there will be 30 parents/grandparents following the Catholic school's kids and sometimes we've seen zero parents following the public school kids. This is just one town and just a 10-15 year observation, but parental support surely plays a role in the athletic development of kids, or lack thereof.
Just like everything else, when you have skin in the game, you are paying for your kids education, you tend to take more of an interest in it, as opposed to when you are not, and they are attending a public school.
My last parent teacher conference I talked to 7 parents, one was a relative, one was a teachers kid. I spoke to none that had a child struggling in my class.
We have a lot of parents that either do not care, or do not have the time to talk to their kids teachers.
Just the way it is.
So maybe the issue isn't public vs private schools, its parenting? Who would have thought?
I'm no teacher but I do a lot of volunteer work with stuff my kids are involved in (baseball, cub scouts and Lego League) and I can tell you that almost without exception if the kid is a ******** their parents are also shitheads.
And the shitheads are the ones with the most kids
Well that, and the private schools recruiting the best athletes from the public schools. Put the two of them together for a private school and you have a winning advantage.
You have yet to explain why it would be a poor idea to have Iowa use the multiplier and make the smaller private schools move up a class in athletics.
That is just sad. I have felt like a terrible father the couple of occasions that my wife and I weren't both at all of the conferences (she had to go alone a couple of times in 9 years and counting). The fact that one of my kids gets straight As isn't even an excuse to not go. Teaching kids is a partnership, not the sole responsibility of the teachers.
For me, I had the opposite experience. When I have played softball, it was the ones who got cut at big schools and think they never got the chance are the hypercompetitive ones. Those of us that played at small town high schools had our competitive days behind us and also knew how good we actually were. We put in some work in high school to see how good we were and then that one time I faced a future MLB pitcher quickly made me realize he was a whole different level of talent.
Haven't ever argued against that. All I've done is use facts to point out the "dominance" you are claiming isn't as prevalent as you claim it to be. And is typically limited to one sport in most cases.
Which oddly enough, success breeds success. Good coaching matters. Young players want to live up to the standards of the program so they push themselves more. More players pushing themselves leads to increased competition for starting spots, which makes everyone up their games. Success breeds success. At both public and private schools.
Where I have said the multiplier was a bad idea. Why is it the team like IC Regina can win the championship 7 years in a row, and be the runner up 2 times. That would cycle through the kids. Its just not coaching, nor parent involvement, both are important, but not to that extent.
Private schools are disproportionally taking up spots in the championship rounds compared to their numbers of schools.
Look at every class and you see private school with an advantage. You are recruiting, I have had athletes tell me they were. To say otherwise is just turning away. Private schools in Iowa are like the SEC in football, they are both cheating, getting away with it, so it will continue. And the state just like the NCAA could care less.
Move them up a class, if they still dominate, great for them. Its evens out the playing field for the smaller schools.
Let's stop and take a deep breath...
I'm not sure where the cheating comes in. I'm okay with a multiplier. But let's not make this out to be some sort of nefarious plot by Catholic (or private) schools. I went to Catholic school. My high school's football team played for the Iowa 4A championship my freshman and junior years. I can tell you that three kids (two were brothers) that started for those teams were not Catholic. Three. Out of 44 starting spots. Sure, active recruiting occurred but it was much more a "passive" recruitment, the program recruited itself. As I implied before, schools like Dowling have an inertia with regard to success. They made a commitment years ago that continues to pay off and remains steady. But Bett & Valley have the same inertia. So every time a kid open enrolls to those schools or the family makes sure they live in that district strictly because of football should someone complain? In that case open enrollment seems like the nefarious plot...
Thank you. It would be interesting to see how many of Dowling's kids come from Catholic grade schools. CF would have us believe it's a bunch of jocks in high school so they can win sports. If they actively recruited then Valley, Waukee, Johnston, whatever, wouldn't be good in any sports because Dowling would get them all. They'd build a super team and never lose.
Everyone moving from their town to Waukee isn't moving because the ranch houses on a cul de sac in Waukee is better than the same house in whatever town they're from. They're moving there for the school. Where is the complaint about that?
EDIT - hold the phone! look at this, right here out in the open.
Where I have said the multiplier was a bad idea. Why is it the team like IC Regina can win the championship 7 years in a row, and be the runner up 2 times. That would cycle through the kids. Its just not coaching, nor parent involvement, both are important, but not to that extent.
Private schools are disproportionally taking up spots in the championship rounds compared to their numbers of schools.
Look at every class and you see private school with an advantage. You are recruiting, I have had athletes tell me they were. To say otherwise is just turning away. Private schools in Iowa are like the SEC in football, they are both cheating, getting away with it, so it will continue. And the state just like the NCAA could care less.
Move them up a class, if they still dominate, great for them. Its evens out the playing field for the smaller schools.
Whatever, put the multiplier in place, and then lets see what happens.
1 - I don't have the ability to do that, but thanks for thinking I have that sort of power.
2 - Good programs will still be good and competitive, bad programs will continue being bad and uncompetitive
Its called moving for a better job. Do you really think those people on the South and East side of DM, are moving out to Waukee for the schools. Most are people from rural areas that have taken a new job in the metro, and they want to live in the new parts of the metro.
The last census showed this, the population of Iowa has increased very little from outside the state, its people leaving the rural areas and moving to the cities. Only been happening for the last hundred years or so.
No one is saying these kids are getting thousands of dollars to go to a private school, but when was the last time you heard of a public school coach talking to another public school player about transferring to their school. Outside of Clear Creek and their softball program, it doesn't happen in public schools. But I have witnessed private school coaches talking to my players about transferring and have had others tell me its happening. At all of them, no clue, at Holy Trinity down here in SE Iowa. Yep.
So then if the state decides to use the multiplier in the future, you would have no problems with it?
No, why would I? I didn't go to a private school and my kids (probably) won't either. Wont affect me in any way.
