Republican Chesepeake Senator Harry Blevins killed the so called “Tebow Bill” in the Senate Education and Health committee. This is yet another instance of conservative legislation being killed at the behest of a Republican.
Opposition to this bill came from several sectors. Some homeschool activists have naturally been concerned that allowing access to public school sports will create a situation where homeschoolers are opened to more government regulation. While some public school coaches and officials opposed this bill on a basis that is far less clear. There were arguements that homeschool kids could not be held to account in regards to their grades and standards, but that is not true, there are many homeschooled children who are capable of producing a transcript and often that transcript is attached to curriculum that is more rigorous academically than public school curriculum. The schools could still have held homeschooled students accountable in regards to academic standards, there are ways to do this. There were probably some parents who were upset because Johnny Homeschooler would beat out Billy Public Schooler for the team…which is just silly. Shouldn’t we encourage our children to exercise their skills and talents regardless of where they go to school? Why should the government intervene to keep some kids off the team so that others will have an advantage…for those parents for whom this was a main reason in opposing this bill, they should be ashamed of themselves.
All of these arguments aside, there is a simple reason why this bill should have been passed, and that is the fact that the parents of homeschoolers pay taxes just like everybody else and as such should have access to tax payer funded facilities. If the high school coaches and other school officials are so adverse to letting in these pesky homeschool kids then maybe they should advocate for the privatization of all public school sports. But until they do that, their arguement is dead in the water.
However, thanks to Senator Blevins this bill is also now dead in the water.
