A few thoughts here.
1. I have seen on other boards, for other sports, people discuss this topic as well and there are a few misconceptions.
A. State law prohibits Charter schools from having rules placed on them that have discriminatory or adverse effects. Districts tried coming up with ideas, but these were fruitless for this reason.
B. Charters are public schools that are either approved at the county level (James Island) and thus their attendance is limited (relatively) to their county residents. Others are state level, (Gray, Oceanside) and can thus accept students from anywhere in the state.
2. Many districts in the state have open enrollment, or other means for kids to choose schools. Fort Dorchester magically gets kids zoned for Stall to play football there every year. Kids in Dorchester 2 may go to any school that offers a program their own school does not have, thus the wanna-be farmers at Ashley Ridge zoned for Summerville. Chapin has kids zoned for DF and Irmo. The list goes on.
3. Those in the Lowcountry well remember a similar issue Hanahan had with Bishop England, a private school located in their attendance zone and in their region. B-E is historically strong in the “country club” sports.
4. Perhaps the biggest grievance Lowcountry schools have with Oceanside, is not simply that they can, and do recruit, from all
over the state (in fact, Sam Hartman, former Wake Forest quarterback, now at Notre Dame, and a legit NFL prospect, transferred there for his senior year from Charlotte), but rather the schedule. What other school allows kids to go class for half the day, and then work on their sport the other other half?
On the one hand, I see many large schools complain, but they also have been recruiting (McKissick at Summerville anyone). On the other hand, the private and charter schools in 1A and 2A are so disproportionately dominant in the SCHSL, that it is understandable that schools due to what has become an obvious advantage, that I cannot blame for not wanting to force the kids, on either side, into playing such a situation. Woodland vs Oceanside hardly seems fair in soccer, where one school has one club player, and the other has nothing but ECNL/NPL. There is no way to level that playing field in a respectful manner.
As an aside, one might suggest those schools play up in non-conference games, but I do know that most schools in the Lowcountry have boycotted playing Oceanside.
The only viable solution from a competitive standpoint that I can foresee, is for those schools to petition the SCHSL to play up two levels - 1A to 3A for example. The downside, some schools would get bumped down. I am not sure that moving to SCISA is a viable option for the charter schools, it maybe for St. Joseph or Christ Church though.
This is a complex issue with know solution that won’t seem unfair to someone.
