TRI In The News
VA Correcting a Wrong Re: Home Schoolers
From One News Now
Original article available here
The Virginia Senate is considering a bill that would give home-schooled students access to participate in sports at public schools, and one attorney thinks the proposal is a good idea.
H.B. 947 has been dubbed the "Tim Tebow law" because Tebow -- who now quarterbacks the NFL's Denver Broncos -- was a home-schooled child who was allowed to play high school football, thanks to similar legislation in Florida. He went on to win a Heisman Trophy and become a pro football star. The Virginia House of Delegates passed the proposal last week by a 59-39 vote. It now needs to pass through the state Senate. If successful there, it will go to the governor, who reportedly "strongly supports" it.
Opponents, including the Virginia High School League and the state teachers union, claim that the Tim Tebow law would "change the entire structure of high school athletics." But John Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute is urging Virginia legislators to pass it.
"What people … who oppose this particular law [forget] is that people out there who have home-schooled children are paying for the public schools as well," he points out. "So it's a taxpayer issue to me [as well as] an equal rights issue."
Similar legislation is seeing opposition all across the country. And according to Whitehead, public school bureaucrats are often the ones who see it as some kind of threat.
"To deny a home-school child a right to play football or basketball because he happens to be home-schooled is just plain wrong," he contends, "and … this bill would correct that. But slowly, I hope it's picked up enough steam to pass."
The measure, sponsored by Virginia Delegate Rob Bell, would require home schoolers who want to try out for sports at public schools to demonstrate academic excellence for two years before they are allowed to try out.
