[charlie22]

Maybe I'm wrong Charlie22 but can't private schools actively seek an individual to attend his/her school? I never thought he meant "illegally" recruit. However to offer schoarships and cost subsidies by a private institution is not unheard of or illegal is it? I think I'm looking at apples to your oranges Charlie.

Private schools can have open houses and if that's what he meant by recruit, then they recruit. However please keep in mind that public schools can if they choose to also hold open houses and attempt to attract out of district students also. Most do not, however they can do so if they want. If I was a Super of a public school and had a lot of excess capacity at the school, I'd sure try to attract out of district students to fill that capacity. Have them pay tuition if there was no reciprocity agreement with the home district. Get more revenue to dilute the fixed costs of running the school district. And if that took have an open house and advertising to attract out of district students, I'd do so, particularly if my school was academically superior to the surrounding school districts. What the privates can't do and the publics can't do is recruit kids for athletic reasons.

In a nut shell, publics can do every thing that privates can do and the privates cannot do any thing that the publics can't do. It's that simple.

Financial aid or scholarships fall into two categories: need based and merit based. By law 13 covers financial aid. 13 is one of the better drafted by laws and I know the KHSAA monitors compliance of it very closely.

Merit based aid (ie the student is academically gifted) to athletes is limited by KHSAA rule to 25% of the tuition. No exceptions. Merit based aid must be determined by taking an entrance exam. The entrance exam must be available to be taken by all students. The awarding of merit based aid must be done in accordance with published objective standards. It doesn't matter how well a student did on a test, they are still going to have to pay at least 75% of the tuition. Keep in mind that at some private schools, the tuition is very expensive so that 75% nut is still going to be tough to crack. In any event, the tuition needed to still be paid is going to be more than attending the local public school which is "free".

Need based aid is based on the financial situation of the parents. Need based financial aid is determined not by the school so one doesn't need to worry if a private school is pulling a fast one using need based financial aid to illegally recruit star athletes; rather, the KHSAA requires financial aid to be determined by a third party company. The KHSAA strictly monitors the companies doing this and they have to come from a KHSAA approved list. Only certain information is provided to the companies and athletic ability info is not provided. It truly is done "blindly" as to the student.

I hope that helps answer your question about financial aid.