The Georgia High School Association and groups like it that collect fees from public schools to organize interscholastic sports events would be forced to produce annual financial reports under a bill filed this week in the Senate.
Senate Bill 288 would bar any public high school from joining such a group unless it annually publishes a comprehensive financial report, which would have to include an accounting of assets, liabilities, income and operating expenses.
“This is driven by my experience with principals and superintendents inside and outside my district who don’t know these answers,” said the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Charlie Bethel, R-Dalton. “I have nothing against the Georgia High School Association. But they are an independent entity and they are profiting off of taxpayer-subsidized activity.”
“Certainly they have expenses and certainly they have staff, and I think they do, from my perspective, in a lot of ways, a great job,” Bethel said. “But I just think when you’re talking about someone profiting off of public high school kids’ activities, the public really has an interest in knowing.”
The GHSA is the granddaddy of athletic associations in the state and can trace its founding to 1904 governing athletic and club events for member high schools — both public and private — statewide. Among its most high-profile events are the state football championship games held annually in the Georgia Dome, although other events include literary competitions for dramatic interpretation, one-act plays and vocal solos.
A GHSA spokesman said Friday that the association already publishes an annual audit, which is publicly available in condensed form on its website under the monthly minutes of its executive committee. Any GHSA member can request the full report.
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