Can a private high school give free tuition to ATHLETES in exchange for their parents doing odd jobs at school

Question

Basically what I'm asking is if this is legal? These parents are doing odd jobs and getting THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of dollars in tuition in return. Should the parents be considered employees or something and be taxed?

A little more back story, a private high school in my area recruits and gets poor athletes from public schools to come play football for them and gives them tuition that way.

Answer 1

It's a complicated issue.

It is in the best interest of the children that the parents are involved in there education. So it makes sense that parents are helping the school with educational tasks (like working in the library, going on excursions, ...).

Also note that a lot of schools are legally entitled to receive help from volunteers (because they are part of a church, ...) so volunteering for a school is legal.

On the other hand, I doubt the school can waive the tuition fees in lieu for doing odd jobs, that seems like illegal avoidance of labour law and income taxes. Note that this is only valid if it can be proven that the tuition fees are waived because the parents do odd jobs for the school and those odd jobs are not required if you pay the full tuition fees.

Answer 2

Well, If the school voucher program ever takes off you won't see that. Plus, Private Schools operate differently than public schools and essentially are a business that exploits public schools weaknesses and the governments laws regarding religion, discipline, and curriculum. Parents can choose for their kids public, private, or home schooling. Tax dollars go to the school even if you don't have kids, or kids that attend that specific school. So unless the Athleatic league or accreditation body has a rule preventing it, more than likely a private school will do it. As an example there have been numerous basketball academies pop up that have rented a space in a low rent shopping center and have only 15 students and 1 teacher that happens to also be the basketball coach. In Texas this has not happened, because Public Schools play in the UIL with very few private and prohicial schools allowed in (Dallas Jesuit, Huston Jesuit, and some smaller class charter school.) Because of this basketball academies have stayed under the radar, because noone wants to go and win a TAPPS Championship that is not as prestigeous as a UIL championship.

Answer 3

That's not uncommon. In my country, parents need to volunteer as librarians, chaperones, gardeners, administrative staff and story tellers just to secure a place for their children in a preferred school.