“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” – John Muir

We live in a world full of unintended consequences.

Christopher Columbus thought he landed in India after sailing the ocean blue in 1492. George Clinton improvised the lyrics to “Atomic Dog” because he was so strung out in the recording studio, he thought a track was playing when the sound engineer was rewinding the tape. Viagra was first developed to treat high blood pressure.

Likewise, the single most difficult part of creating a public policy is limiting the likelihood of any unintended consequences that often accompany important policy decisions.

This brings us to the circumstances of how Gov. Kay Ivey and Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives Nathaniel Ledbetter ended up suing Alabama’s high school athletics governing body two weeks ago.

If you will remember, the 2024 CHOOSE Act created specialized education accounts for parents and guardians of school-aged children.

Many parents can now access up to $7,000 of state funds per child every year to spend on private school tuition and fees instead of the state providing funding for each student directly to a public school.

Unexpectedly, this new law has run up against the existing bylaws of the Alabama High School Athletic Association. Many of the state’s more successful private school athletic programs compete alongside public schools as AHSAA members.

Rule 6, Section 7 of AHSAA bylaws states, “A student that transfers to a member school and receives any financial aid shall remain ineligible at that school for one year.”

The AHSAA has this rule to stymie the recruitment of talented athletes from one school to another. In effect, students can accept full or partial financial aid made available to attend a private school, but it will cost them a year of athletics eligibility.

Interestingly, legislators actually did consider the impact of the CHOOSE Act on high school athletes when crafting the bill last year.

Trisha Powell Crain, of Alabama Daily News, reported an amendment was added to the legislation saying nothing in the CHOOSE Act should “affect or change the athletic availability of student athletes governed by the Alabama High School Athletic Association or similar association.”

Crain quoted several state elected officials saying the amendment is meant to be interpreted as students who use CHOOSE Act funding to change schools should not have their athletic eligibility affected, and state funding applied to private school tuition should not be considered financial aid.

The AHSAA disagrees. In a press release, the AHSAA says it interprets that part of the act to mean student athletes using the CHOOSE Act are still subject to AHSAA rules. The AHSAA does consider funding provided by the CHOOSE Act as financial aid.

After discussions between the state and the AHSAA went nowhere fast, Ivey and Ledbetter asked a Montgomery County Circuit Court to intervene and allow the effected students to participate in sports for their new schools. This was temporarily granted while the issue is being resolved.

I think the AHSAA is trying to do what it believes to be the right thing to maintain competitive balance in high school sports and prevent recruitment of student athletes.

I am not plugged into high school athletics as deeply as some of you reading this, but even I hear about recruiting allegations from time to time. For example, Gadsden’s Coosa Christian School was forced to forfeit several wins a couple of years ago due to allegations related to AHSAA’s transfer rules.

Furthermore, while I am not a fan of the CHOOSE Act, I think the AHSAA is going to have a tough row to hoe in trying to argue taxpayer dollars legally available to most Alabama families should be considered a form of scholarship or financial aid.

Will private schools get a boost in attracting athletic talent? Yes, I think that is likely. I think private schools will also get a boost in a lot of other areas, too, mainly coming at the expense of public schools.

However, the law has passed, and it seems to be a popular one. I fear the longer the AHSAA fights for its position, the longer it will be sticking its face in the hornets’ nest of public opinion.

Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth recently posted on X, “I’ll offer legislation to strip AHSAA of its power and give it to an entity that will follow the law.”

Potentially tearing down the governing body of high school athletics seems like it would qualify as an unintended consequence of the CHOOSE Act.