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Outside of football, it doesn’t take long to hear one thing when talking about the playoffs for a Cherokee County team.
“We’ll have to see about the charters.”
For those unfamiliar with charter schools, they’re tuition-free public schools open to anyone in the county where the school is located or a 25-mile radius. The N.C. General Assembly passed a bill in 1996 that allowed for 100 charter schools to be built statewide. In 2011, when Republicans took control of both legislative bodies in the state for the first time since Reconstruction, Senate Bill 8 removed the cap on the number of charters.
Fast forward 10 years later, and 46 charter schools are members of the N.C. High School Athletic Association. Of those schools, 38 of the 46 are in 1A, the classification has seen the biggest impact from charter school expansion. Since Senate Bill 8 went into law, charter schools have won 73 team state championships – and 64 have come while competing against 1A schools.
Being open to anyone in the county or a 25-mile radius is why charter schools have been so successful in 1A athletics. All but two of the charter schools in 1A are in more populated counties than Cherokee.
Most are also within striking distance of one of the major metropolitan areas in the state. That means not only a deeper talent pool to draw athletes from, but easier access to travel sports programs – and parents with deeper pockets to help get their kids to the next level.
Murphy volleyball’s opponent in the 1A West Regional final, Union Academy, is in Union County, the eighth most-populous county in the state with more than 247,000 residents. A parent told me that all but two or three kids on the team live less than 10 minutes from the school, and most of the student body lives close by or else the commute would be unbearable.
My commute from downtown Andrews to the Cherokee Scout’s office in Murphy is 16 miles, and the only buildings along the way are the casino, Ingles, Walmart and a strip mall. Drive that same distance away from Union Academy, and you hit strip mall after strip mall, and in one direction you can get within the Charlotte city limits.
The smallest traditional public high school in Union County has more students than the combined amount of students in Cherokee County high schools.
Charter schools haven’t taken over all sports yet, but signs say they’re coming. Though Swain County took home the 1A girls cross country title Saturday, that was the first time a traditional public school has won it all since 2010. For girls soccer, it has been since 2012. Men’s soccer since 2016.
For volleyball, it’s been since 2015, and this is the second straight year two charters will meet in the 1A Final. For boys basketball, it’s also been since 2015.
While 4A schools have to worry about non-boarding parochial schools Charlotte Catholic and Cardinal Gibbons, 1A schools have to worry about charters and Bishop McGuinness, which has won 21 state championships since charter school expansion. With the Villains in the mix, it just adds to the disadvantage. The 1A schools are in mostly rural areas, and it’s unfair to have them play against potentially select talent from the most populated parts of the state.
So, how to fix this problem? That’s where it gets thorny. If six schools bring an issue to the NCHSAA, members can vote on it.
For it to pass, 75 percent of member schools need to vote for the change. The problem is, bigger schools don’t have to deal with charters, so they have no reason to vote for giving them their own playoffs separate from traditional public schools.
The proposed NCHSAA reform bill in the state Legislature is another solution, as it would bump charter schools up one classification. Its status is up in the air, as I’m not sure it has enough bipartisan support for Gov. Roy Cooper (D-N.C.) to sign it into law.
However, there needs to be a solution. Classifications give schools of similar size a chance to compete against each other without having to worry about bigger schools come playoff time.
Sure, high schools everywhere figure out how to finesse the system, but charter schools rules give them a huge leg up on 1A competition. Unless something changes, that’s not going to end anytime soon.
Justin Fitzgerald is a sports writer for the Cherokee Scout. Call him at 837-5122, Ext. 18; or email
sports@cherokeescout.com.