Sen. Kwame Raoul

Filed: 4/11/2011

 

 


 

 


 
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1
AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 624

2    AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend Senate Bill 624 by replacing
3everything after the enacting clause with the following:
 
4    "Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the High
5School State Tournaments, Competitions, and Fairness Act.
 
6    Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds the
7following:
8        (1) That, pursuant to Section 1 of Article X of the
9    Illinois Constitution, a fundamental goal of the people of
10    this State is the educational development of all persons to
11    the limits of their capacities.
12        (2) That, pursuant to Section 1 of Article X of the
13    Illinois Constitution, the State has provided substantial
14    funding to the system of public education, and that the
15    funds provided by the State have assisted the high schools
16    of this State to finance sporting competition, to pay

 

 

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1    coaches' salaries, and to provide sports facilities used by
2    the public schools of this State.
3        (3) That high school sports competitions should be won
4    fairly and squarely on the fields of play, and that rules
5    and regulations designed to give any school or group of
6    schools a legislative advantage over another school or
7    group of schools should be forbidden.
8        (4) That certain organizations or associations hold or
9    claim to hold sports tournaments for the high school
10    student athletes of this State and to award State
11    championships and State titles to the winners of these
12    tournaments.
13        (5) That certain organizations holding State
14    tournaments that purport to award State championships or
15    State titles based on fair competition have passed rules
16    that have the appearance of discriminating against
17    parochial, private, and magnet schools.
18        (6) That if publicly funded schools participate in
19    sports tournaments that purport to award State
20    championships or State titles, then these tournaments must
21    be conducted consistently with the spirit and requirements
22    of due process and equal protection under Section 2 of
23    Article I of the Illinois Constitution, and that race,
24    religion, creed, and national ancestry should be
25    irrelevant to and shall have no part in the competition.
26        (7) That State titles and State championships should be

 

 

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1    won on the basis of excellence on the fields of play and
2    roughly equal contestants on the fields of play, and that
3    it is inconsistent with the notions of public education
4    that any school should be barred from competition or put at
5    a competitive disadvantage by organization or association
6    rules that apply to one school in the competition and not
7    the other.
8        (8) That smaller schools cannot fairly compete with
9    substantially larger schools, and that it should therefore
10    be permissible to create classes, such as Class A and Class
11    AA, but that these classes must be based on actual
12    enrollments and not upon imaginary students.
13        (9) That devices, such as multipliers, that create the
14    illusion that a school has more than its actual number of
15    students are forbidden.
16        (10) That disputes between an organization or
17    association and any member school over recruiting
18    practices require a hearing that meets with the procedural
19    notions of due process, including an impartial hearing
20    panel, a charge, an opportunity to be heard, and the right
21    to appear by counsel.
 
22    Section 10. Application. This Act applies to competitions
23run by any person, corporation, organization, or association in
24this State purporting to award a State championship, State
25title, or the like and involving the publicly funded high

 

 

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1schools of this State.
 
2    Section 15. Prohibitions. In all competitions, no
3distinctions between schools may be made on the basis of race,
4religion, creed, or nation of origin, and no parochial,
5private, charter, or magnet school may be barred from such
6competition or be placed at a competitive disadvantage. No
7publicly funded high school in this State may participate in
8any State tournament or State title competition if the
9organizer seeks by use of a multiplier or like device to move
10any school into a higher class. No provision of this Act shall
11prohibit a school from petitioning the Illinois High School
12Association to move up in athletic class.
 
13    Section 20. Tournament organization. A tournament
14organizer may organize classes based on the actual number of
15students attending a school. The organizer may provide for
16separate boys' and girls' tournaments. In determining classes,
17boys' classes must be based on the actual number of boys
18attending the school, and girls' classes must be based on the
19actual number of girls attending the school. The use of
20multipliers and like devices are forbidden.".