There are changes that should have been made long ago about how the NCHSAA governs high school sports. Just the amount of money that it was sitting on during a time when schools were in need of funds did warrant investigation.

But the answer is not what the NC General Assembly put into law.

In short, the NCHSAA is a private entity that governs high school sports for public schools.

“The main sources of revenue for the NCHSAA annual operating budget come from revenue shares in playoff/championship contests, corporate support, membership dues, and officials’ registration. The NCHSAA does not receive funding from member schools’ regular season contests or direct funding from tax dollars or State funds.”

Those contests and membership dues come straight from high schools and are the fruits of work done by local coaches, athletic directors, parents, and students.

Apparently just in the past couple of years, the amount of money that the NCHSAA has had in surplus is over $40 million dollars. Wow!

The new law that now is in effect changes oversight more over to the State Superintendent. From the N&O report referred to above:

Oversight?

The same governing body that literally put into the recent budget new provisions to allow legislators to keep documents, meeting notes, and emails from being publicly viewed wants to talk about “transparency” of an already private entity that takes public school money.

Another irony here is that the people who are changing the oversight of the NCHSAA also talk about the amount of money supposedly that is surplus which should be going back to schools.

Did those lawmakers ever consider LEANDRO or the fact that our state woefully underfunds the public schools in this state while they themelves are sitting on billions of budget surpluses?

Any oversight of the NCHSAA should start with the coaches, athletic directors, and their school/county administration. They are the ones who make high school sports work.

And considering the amount of stipends “earned” and the responsibilities on top of being educators, coaches and athletic directors do more with less and create a fabric that keeps communities together.