[Hoot Gibson]

I don’t believe in treating anyone like a second class citizen; what the…….!

I’m an American who believes in freedom and success and happiness for all.

Forcing every athlete who attends a private school to compete in a single class, regardless of their schools' enrollment numbers would not be treating them as equals. How would you like it if your son's school had 200 students enrolled and had to play St. X in the playoffs?

But they they chose to send their kid to that school. So, they would be treated exactly as equals, because all the students at all those schools chose to go there, for whatever reason.

I am not arguing for or against, I just do not think the treating them as equals has any merit.

And yes, there is debate in Indiana about the privates vs public.

Wrong. Currently, for example, there are around 600 children attending Sayre from pre-school through 12th grade. Forcing Sayre to compete in a single private school class with Trinity and St. X would affect the students and parents that have already chosen the school. Even if such an idiotic rule were to apply only to future students, those students would not be treated as equals because students in the same sized public schools would be playing against teams from similar sized schools. That is not treating students from private and public schools as equals, it is discriminating against private schools for no good reason.

As I have said repeatedly, the real problem exists in Kentucky's public school football programs that are for the most part, very weak. It is much easier to tear successful schools down than it is to improve failing schools. There are plenty of people in every state who hate private schools or hate Christians or hate Catholics and want toi force kids to attend their neighborhood public schools and athletic programs. But large public schools have dominated Indiana 6A football, with the recent exception of Cathedral, for decades. Teacher unions and the politicians that they own would love to use taxpayer funds to persecute private schools into oblivion through legislation.

Let's play the discrimination game.....one can/does discriminate when it comes to who enrolls....one cannot....

Suggesting that the rules should be changed to restrict all private schools to compete in a single district that would include some of the smallest 1A schools in the states to compete with two of the largest 6A teams in the state would definitely be discriminating against private schools and their football players. Parents of private school student athletes pay property taxes that support public schools, the same as every property owner in their public school district. To punish football players who play for private schools would be wrong.

If Kentucky had a larger population and more private schools having football teams, then having separate classes for public and private schools would be more defensible, but it is ridiculous to propose a single private school class for Kentucky. It is not going to happen - and if it did, my guess is that private schools would sue the state. What you are proposing makes no more sense than proposing that all high school football teams from schools east of I-75 play in a single class. You cannot discriminate against people with absolutely no justification.