HB2007ham001 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Rep. Patrick J Verschoore

Filed: 4/12/2005

09400HB2007ham001 LRB094 02834 NHT 45026 a

AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 2007

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 2007 by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the High School State Tournaments, Competitions, and Championships Act.

Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds the following:

(1) That, pursuant to Section 1 of Article X of the Illinois Constitution, a fundamental goal of the people of this State is the educational development of all persons to the limits of their capacities.

(2) That, pursuant to Section 1 of Article X of the Illinois Constitution, the State has provided substantial funding to the system of public education, and that the funds provided by the State have assisted the high schools of this State to finance sporting competition, to pay coaches' salaries, and to provide sports facilities used by the public schools of this State.

(3) That high school sports competitions should be won fairly and squarely on the fields of play, and that rules and regulations designed to give any school or group of schools a legislative advantage over another school or group of schools should be forbidden.

(4) That certain organizations or associations hold or claim to hold sports tournaments for the high school student athletes of this State and to award State championships and State titles to the winners of these tournaments.

(5) That certain organizations holding State tournaments that purport to award State championships or State titles based on fair competition have passed rules that have the appearance of discriminating against parochial, private, and magnet schools.

(6) That if publicly funded schools participate in sports tournaments that purport to award State championships or State titles, then these tournaments must be conducted consistently with the spirit and requirements of due process and equal protection under Section 2 of Article I of the Illinois Constitution, and that race, religion, creed, and national ancestry should be irrelevant to and shall have no part in the competition.

(7) That State titles and State championships should be won on the basis of excellence on the fields of play and roughly equal contestants on the fields of play, and that it is inconsistent with the notions of public education that any school should be barred from competition or put at a competitive disadvantage by organization or association rules that apply to one school in the competition and not the other.

(8) That smaller schools cannot fairly compete with substantially larger schools, and that it should therefore be permissible to create classes, such as Class A and Class AA, but that these classes must be based on actual enrollments and not upon imaginary students.

(9) That devices, such as multipliers, that create the illusion that a school has more than its actual number of students should be forbidden.

(10) That active recruiting by sending recruiters out to bring student athletes into a school should be discouraged.

(11) That disputes between an organization or association and any member school over recruiting practices require a hearing that meets with the procedural notions of due process, including an impartial hearing panel, a charge, an opportunity to be heard, and the right to appear by counsel.

Section 10. Application. This Act applies to competitions run by any person, corporation, organization, or association in this State purporting to award a State championship, State title, or the like and involving the publicly funded high schools of this State.

Section 15. Prohibitions. In all competitions, no distinctions between schools may be made on the basis of race, religion, creed, or nation of origin, and no parochial, private, or magnet school may be barred from such competition or be placed at a competitive disadvantage. No publicly funded high school in this State may participate in any State tournament or State title competition if the organizer seeks by use of a multiplier or like device to move any school into a higher class.

Section 20. Tournament organization. A tournament organizer may organize classes based on the actual number of students attending a school. The organizer may provide for separate boys' and girls' tournaments. In determining classes, boys' classes must be based on the actual number of boys attending the school, and girls' classes must be based on the actual number of girls attending the school. The use of multipliers and like devices are forbidden.

Section 25. Recruiting.

(a) Active recruiting of athletes by a high school is deemed anti-competitive conduct. Active recruiting does not include the desire of a parent to place his or her child in a parochial, private, or magnet school. Bringing a student athlete in from outside the State creates a prima facie case of recruiting.

(b) A student athlete who has attended a parochial junior high school, which junior high school is a feeder school for a particular parochial high school, is deemed not to have been recruited. A "feeder school" means a parochial school that is required to pay and does pay funds to support the particular parochial high school.

(c) If any high school is guilty of actively recruiting a student athlete, the organizer of the tournament can move the offending school up one division in that sport, after a due process hearing.

(d) The due process hearing shall take place before an impartial arbitration panel of 3 members, after the filing of a written charge, which shall specifically state the recruiting violation. The organizer shall appoint the first member of the panel. The defendant school shall appoint the second member. Those 2 members shall select the third member.

Each side shall present its witnesses. Each side is entitled to appear by counsel. Each side has the right to cross examine the other party's witnesses. In the case of a prima facie violation, it shall be the burden of the defendant to rebut the charge by the preponderance of the evidence. In a case of recruiting that does not involve a prima facie violation, the plaintiff shall have the burden of proving its case by the preponderance of the evidence.

The matter shall be reviewable in the circuit court in the county where the defendant school has its principal place of business, as provided under the Uniform Arbitration Act. If the provisions of the Uniform Arbitration Act are contrary to this Act, this Act governs.".