ruling by the Georgia High School Association

last week sent shock waves through private

schools in Georgia.

Last

Monday, the GHSA Executive Committee voted to

restrict the areas from which high school

students may transfer to a private school and

still retain eligibility for extracurricular

activities.

Landmark

Christian School and Woodward Academy, both of

which have significant numbers of Fayette County

residents enrolled, are affected by the ruling.

The

reason for the executive committee's decision was

based upon perceived advantages that private

schools have over public schools. This issue was

brought forward by state Rep. Tom Murphy of

Bremen, speaker of the Georgia House of

Representatives.

Murphy

addressed the state legislature several months

ago with a problem. His daughter coaches the

debate team at Bremen High School, which loses

every year to a private school. The private

school draws students from a larger surrounding

area and therefore, as Murphy reckons, has an

advantage over the smaller schools that are

forced to compete in the same GHSA classification

with them.

Before

the GHSA handed down the ruling last week,

transfer students from any county that had at

least 10 percent enrollment in the private school

qualified for eligibility for extracurricular

activities. Now, students transferring to private

schools are eligible only if they live in the

county in which the school is situated. If they

do not live in the same county, they would lose a

year of eligibility and not be able to

participate in extracurricular activities that

year.

Students

that are currently enrolled are not affected, but

starting in the fall transfer students will lose

a year of eligibility. This ruling does not

affect only athletic or academic teams. A

transfer student would not be allowed to be in

the school play or on the yearbook committee. The

schools in the area that would be affected are

Landmark Christian School and Woodward Academy.

In

a statement released to the press last week,

Landmark officials state, "The school does

not consider the GHSA ruling to be fair or

reasonable. Families considering private school

education are impacted by the distance from their

home to the school rather than the county in

which the school is located. There presently are

situations in public schools where the GHSA

allows students to cross school district or

county lines to attend public schools either

nearer to their homes or offering programs they

desire. This situation is a double

standard."

The

GHSA ruling did state that students could appeal

to a committee, but the length of the process

might be a deterrent. The Landmark statement

continued to say that, "While this

particular ruling probably does not affect a

large number of students each year, it is still

unfair to those students who move into a

community and who wish to have the freedom to

choose the private school closest to their

home."

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