On November 29th, 2024, West Chester, Pennsylvania was filled with cheers and music. The State Semi-Final for football was taking place between the home team WC Rustin High School and the private school Roman Catholic. But as Roman continued to score, beating out the home team and their chance for a state title, fans jeered “Recruiters!” and “Go back to Jersey!” Roman would go on to win the game 41-17, but lose in the State Championship 5A class to another private school, Bishop McDevitt. In fact, in this year’s Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) Football State Championships, Class 1A, 4A, 5A, and 6A were all won by private or parochial schools. The runner-up for Class 6A (Central Catholic), 5A (Roman Catholic) were also private schools.

Looking back at the creation of Class 5A and 6A in 2016, past victories show that private schools have won consistent state titles in football. St Joseph’s Preparatory has won seven out of nine titles and has competed runner-up in the remaining two Class 6A championships. In class 5A, private schools have won five out of nine titles and competed as runner up in four other championships. And since 2013, half of wrestling state championships, 55% of girls golf state championships, 59% of girls basketball state championships and 67% of boys basketball state championships have been won by non-public schools. This hardly seems fair, considering that non-public schools only constitute around 24% of schools in the PIAA.

Private schools were not originally involved in the PIAA’s creation in 1913. The two systems were separated until 1972, when Act 219 in Bill No. 2104 dissolved the segregation between private and public schools in interscholastic sports. Since then, private schools in Pennsylvania that don’t recruit for sports have opted to join the PIAA over non-public school leagues such as the WPIAL or Inter-AC. However, many public school coaches and students have felt frustrated at private schools’ dominance in the PIAA.

Many opponents to private schools in the PIAA argue that private schools have extraneous amounts of money to pour into sports programs — money that public schools do not have. St. Joe’s Prep recently spent $24 million on a capital improvement project of the school, which drastically improved its athletics facilities, including an indoor turf field and expanding weightlifting facilities. For reference, the average cost of tuition at St Joe’s Prep is roughly $27,350 per year. Similarly, Central Catholic High School just outside Pittsburgh costs $15,250 per year. These schools are able to support their programs through high tuition prices and alumni networks. Recently, the Prep received an $8 million estate grant from alumni networks, the largest in school history. The affluence that many of these non-public schools attain places public schools, who in principle are equally-placed, at a disadvantage in many sports, specifically sports that require large amounts of funding. Football requires fields, basketball requires stadium space, and tennis requires outdoor venues, often costing millions to build and maintain. Smaller public schools may struggle to compete in the “arms race” of facilities and equipment that give competitors an edge, despite having similar programs.

Critics of Act 219 also argue that non-public schools, especially parochial schools in the Greater Philadelphia Region and Pittsburgh, consist of students that live outside the state. They find it unfair for students who don’t actively live in the state to compete in Pennsylvania’s interscholastic athletics. St. Joe’s Prep boasts on its website that it enrolls students from 172 zip codes, including those from New Jersey and Delaware. For non-public schools, students are given the choice to attend. The status and opportunities of going to private schools, especially considering many are feeders, sees the best athletes attending these schools over their public school. “I don’t think it’s fair because when you are in a school district like Haverford or Springfield, you are confined to how many people who can attend the high school based on [their proximity] to the school,” says swim team captain Matt Casadei. “But for private schools, they’re allowed to go into different states and [those students] are allowed to win state championships, even though they don’t live in Pennsylvania. It seems a bit backwards; it’s a little bit weird to me.”

Not all public schools are created equal. Average household income for each school district, community values, and athletics culture all impact a school’s sports programs. Historically, District I has excelled in swimming because many rural schools don’t have regular access to regulation pools. Similarly, schools in more remote areas offer rifle as a sport due to hunting culture and proximity to state game lands. But the over-representation of private schools in state championships muddles PIAA’s philosophy of “the opportunity for boys and girls to represent their school and community as they participate in interscholastic activities [as] a privilege.” Privilege to excel in interscholastic sports seems to now come with the price tag of a private education. Students who go to elite schools in cities or rural areas do not accurately represent those populations, and unlike public schools who represent their communities, private schools only represent the community of the school. It would serve the best interest of PIAA to consider the effects of introducing private schools into the league of public school athletes, coaches, and programs.