0:01

N-P-R. Sally

0:12

Hersheffs, you're back on The Indicator,

0:14

this time with a personal story.

0:16

Welcome back. Thank you. Yes. So

0:19

I'm a step-parent. My steps on

0:21

Clyde is 17. He

0:23

plays soccer and I kept hearing about this

0:25

thing, the cool kids were doing.

0:27

It is called

0:30

reclassing. Clyde Felsen. Hello.

0:32

So what is reclassing? Reclassing

0:38

for high school students is when you redo it

0:40

a year of high school. He's

0:42

talking here about student athletes specifically. And by

0:44

the way, it also happens in middle school.

0:47

You just repeat seventh or eighth grade. And

0:49

here's the thing, they're not doing it because

0:51

of bad grades, but because they want to.

0:55

Why would you want to redo a year

0:57

of school? So, I

0:59

mean, it gives you an advantage because most,

1:01

if not all, the kids you're playing against have played four

1:03

years of high school sports or whatever they're doing. And

1:06

you'll be having played five. An extra

1:09

year could give a kid like Clyde the

1:11

time to get bigger, faster, and stronger. So

1:13

Clyde has decided to reclass. It

1:16

could help with his long-term goals, including

1:18

playing college soccer. Having a car is

1:20

like another one, but like going to one's

1:23

pretty high up there. Like that's the main goal. But

1:25

if I can get a scholarship, fantastic,

1:27

because debt sucks. Debt

1:30

does suck. I'm a parent, too. I'm

1:32

spiraling now just talking about college costs.

1:35

The debt college spiral. But the

1:37

idea is that reclassing can give students

1:39

an edge trying to get into college,

1:42

which might help your kid get into

1:44

a better school and maybe

1:46

even land a scholarship. But

1:49

it can also come with some heavy costs

1:51

for kids and their parents. This

1:54

is the indicator from Planet Money.

1:56

I'm Sally Herships. And I'm Weyland

1:58

Wong. On today's show, the decision...

2:00

to invest in reclassing. How does

2:02

it work and can it pay

2:04

off? We're

2:08

going to start today by looking at

2:10

the glory stories. To do that, imagine

2:12

we're in a gym and there are

2:14

some bleachers with three levels. There's a

2:16

group of teenagers on each step. For

2:18

example, you said your stepson Clyde sees

2:21

reclassing as a way to help him

2:23

achieve his goal, playing college soccer at

2:25

the top level. Yeah, and then of

2:27

course there are the parental goals, like

2:29

maybe it will help Clyde get into

2:31

a better school with a scholarship. But

2:34

his goal puts him at the first

2:36

step. And when I first asked Clyde

2:39

about reclassing, he was like, you got

2:41

to talk to my friend Sage. His

2:43

friend Sage Mateo is an example of

2:45

a kid sitting one level up on

2:48

those bleachers. Sage is 17, he lives

2:50

in New York City, and he's really

2:52

serious about basketball. So I want to

2:54

play in college for sure. I

2:57

think it'd be interesting to play overseas for

2:59

a couple years out of college just

3:01

for like some experiences living in a different

3:04

country. Sage comes across as

3:06

pretty mature for his age. When I asked him

3:08

if he wanted to play in the NBA one

3:10

day, he was like, maybe. I don't

3:12

know, I think if the NBA opportunity comes along, I'd

3:14

love to do it after college. Sage

3:17

got serious about basketball way back, but

3:19

by the time he got to eighth

3:21

grade, there was a big problem. It

3:23

was that Sage wasn't big yet. He

3:25

called himself a late bloomer. So

3:28

Sage reclassed. He did eighth grade

3:30

again. That extra time not only

3:32

meant he could grow, but he

3:35

could also improve his basketball skills,

3:37

which could eventually attract the attention

3:39

of a college recruiter. Maybe

3:41

he gets into a better school, which

3:43

in turn could lead to higher future

3:46

earnings or even the potential of Sage's

3:48

dream, going pro one day. But here's

3:50

where things move up to the top

3:53

level in our bleachers. This is where

3:55

a group of teenagers who are already

3:57

arguably professional are sitting. They're how my

4:00

steps on Clyde first heard about

4:02

reclassing. Like when my friend Perlow

4:04

was like, oh, look at this kid Cooper Flagg,

4:06

he's reclassed. Look at Elliot Caddo, he's a reclass.

4:09

Take that second name Clyde mentioned,

4:11

Elliot Caddo. He's 19, he plays

4:13

basketball, and he got recruited to

4:15

the University of North Carolina at

4:17

Chapel Hill. And remember, rules

4:19

have changed, and student athletes can now

4:22

earn big bucks on brand deals. Well,

4:24

Elliot's already landed some with companies

4:27

like Wilson Sporting Goods, Marriott, and

4:29

the restaurant chain Kava. He also

4:31

has almost a quarter million followers

4:33

on Instagram. After a tough

4:35

practice, Kava is my go-to to refuel

4:38

like a champion. So, Elliot Caddo

4:40

reclassed in eighth grade so that he would

4:42

be in the best possible position for high

4:44

school, which is when things got more competitive.

4:46

And it worked, he was a star. So

4:49

much so that he was being recruited left and

4:51

right. And then he

4:53

reclassed again, it's another way to

4:55

work this reclassing strategy. He

4:57

graduated a year early so he could play

4:59

point guard at UNC. So

5:02

reclassing has worked for Elliot, but

5:04

reclassing has all these rules. A

5:06

key one, generally the day a

5:08

kid starts high school, a clock

5:10

starts ticking. They get four years

5:12

to play high school sports, but

5:14

those are public schools. We checked

5:16

and couldn't find a state that

5:18

allows reclassing strictly for athletics. So

5:21

kids who reclass go to private school

5:23

and it's expensive as much as $60,000

5:25

a year. Yeah,

5:27

and that's one of the big criticisms of

5:30

this system, that it can be pay to

5:32

play, that all kinds of

5:34

talented kids can be shut out because

5:36

they can't afford private school. There are

5:38

some private schools that offer aid, but

5:40

there's little data on athletic scholarship money.

5:43

And I should say here that the only

5:45

way Clyde gets to reclass is that my

5:47

husband teaches at the private school where Clyde

5:49

is a student. So we are getting a

5:51

pretty good deal. What about the rest of

5:53

us who might not be so lucky in

5:55

our choice of partners? I

5:57

know, not everyone can be so lucky. lucky.

6:00

Well, there are college scholarships. The

6:02

NCAA gave out more than $3.9

6:04

billion for the

6:09

2023 school year. But that money only

6:11

goes to fewer than two and a

6:13

half percent of all high school athletes.

6:16

Still, money aside, the odds of winning

6:18

a spot at a Division I school

6:20

are incredibly tight. Even if

6:22

you do have the means to

6:24

send your kid to a private

6:26

school, it's still not a slam

6:28

dunk. Three percent of students win

6:31

a spot at Harvard. Only about

6:33

one percent make it to a

6:35

Division I basketball team. Yeah, it's

6:37

highly competitive. And reclassing has even

6:39

led to lawsuits like one in

6:41

Massachusetts where a fight broke out

6:43

between the body that oversees public

6:45

school sports and a private school

6:47

it accused of, quote, serious, egregious

6:49

and repeated misconduct for its students

6:52

reclassing. Michelle Cadeaux is familiar with

6:54

all these different perspectives. She is

6:56

mom to Elliott Cadeaux, that UNC

6:58

player with all the sponsors, which

7:00

she does help him manage. In

7:03

her other time, she's become a reclassing

7:05

consultant and she's pretty direct about how

7:07

she says parents should think about reclassing.

7:09

It's a business decision, really. It's important

7:12

to have a plan so you get

7:14

some kind of return on your investment.

7:16

The kid gets return on investment. The

7:18

parents get return on the investment. Some

7:21

coaches and industry pros we talked to were a

7:23

bit down on reclassing. They say, if you hold

7:26

a kid back a year, of course they're going

7:28

to look good because they are older than all

7:30

the other kids and bigger. Wayne

7:32

Mazzoni coached Division I baseball at

7:34

Sacred Heart University in Connecticut for

7:37

almost two decades. He now advises

7:39

kids and parents about how to

7:41

get on track to play college

7:43

ball. He's not down on reclassing,

7:46

but he does have two very

7:48

different perspectives. Teachers don't

7:50

care how you got there. If you

7:52

went to Mars to go train and

7:54

came, no one really cares. It's just

7:57

by the time your year comes, are you

8:00

good enough to have it? help the program.

8:02

But when it comes to the kids' perspective,

8:04

Wayne says they should think twice before they

8:06

switch to private school and leave old-school friends

8:08

behind. He says not all students who do

8:11

this are successful. For every one of those

8:13

you see, you don't

8:15

see the 1,000 kids that say,

8:17

this stinks, this is miserable, I'm not gonna play

8:19

in college, I spent my whole life and all

8:21

my time doing this, I regret it, I should

8:23

have, you know, gone into science. As

8:26

for Sage Mateo, our serious New York

8:28

City basketball player, he finished his sophomore

8:30

year and reclassing seems to have paid

8:32

off for him. Right now,

8:34

this June 15th mark, this past June

8:36

15th mark, opened up when

8:39

coaches can actively reach out

8:41

to me in text and call my phone and

8:43

I'm currently talking to like 10 schools. Now

8:46

we don't want to name names here because

8:48

we don't want to affect Sage's college prospects

8:50

but we will say there are some hefty

8:52

schools on that list. So I don't know,

8:54

Wayland, should we reclass? Like I volunteered to

8:56

redo my 40s, we could get some like

8:59

podcasts recruiting us. What do you think?

9:01

I'll do my 20s again. Right?

9:08

This episode was produced by Julia Ritchie with

9:10

engineering by James Willets. It was fact-checked by

9:12

Cierra Juarez. Kicking Cannon is the show's editor,

9:14

The Indicator is a production of NPR.