A proviso that would allow the South Carolina High School Sports League to realign schools based on competitive balance was voted to be removed from the state budget. 

This means that public charter schools such as West Columbia’s Gray Collegiate Academy will remain in the 2A classification barring any significant changes in the school’s enrollment. 

As things currently stand, the league cannot realign schools into different classifications based on competitive balance. 

With the recent dominance of public charter schools at the 2A level and the league not being able to reclassify them without significant changes to enrollment, state legislators drafted language that would provide the league the authority to make changes to classifications if they deemed it necessary to preserve competitive balance. 

The proviso passed through the house in May and was brought to the conference committee to decide whether or not the adjusted language would be included in the state budget. 

On June 8, it was decided by the committee that the proviso would not be included in the final budget. This ultimately kills the proviso and any potential change to public charter school participation at the 2A level for the foreseeable future.

The league is next scheduleto adjust classification in 2024 and will continue to realign if necessary based on school enrollment.

State Rep. Russell Ott, a Democrat whose District 93 touches the counties of Lexington, Calhoun and Orangeburg and who sponsored the addition of the athletics stipulation, told the Chronicle that he will push for the house to take the issue up again in January. 

With the proviso voted out of the state budget and the issue not being able to be brought up until 2024, the league has no power to implement changes. 

According to Otis Rawl, who sits on the league’s Appellate Panel, there isn’t anything they can do to address any perceived issues of competitive imbalance.

“Until there’s legislative changes that are well thought out and made sure that you don’t harm some of the home schoolers, charter schools and traditional, they got to find a way from an equitable standpoint to deal with it without penalizing one group of schools,” Rawl told the Chronicle. “The High School League’s hands are pretty much tied now.”