Homeschooling and public sports

Many parents who decide to homeschool their children do so knowing that many factors influence their decision, one of which is that their children will not be able to participate in sports offered in public schools. Tim Tebow, the popular quarterback who was homeschooled and allowed to play on his high school football team, where he excelled and achieved great things at the University of Florida, has inspired homeschoolers to try to play sports in your area. There’s even a bill in Richmond, Virginia named after him, the Tim Tebow bill, if passed House Bill 947 will allow homeschoolers to play sports in a school public.

But it’s not that easy, there are many people who would object to homeschoolers being able to play public sports alongside students who must meet certain grade and behavior requirements to play. They even suggest forming your own leagues and teams or joining other associations outside of public schools, religious groups, YMCAs, or other sports clubs. Many parents of public school students question the fairness and hypocrisy of wanting their children on public school teams, these parents despised the school because it was not good enough for their children and now they only want to participate in certain aspects.

Of course, the standard rebuttal to this argument from homeschooling parents is that they, too, pay taxes and are entitled to play on public school teams. This is possibly the most overblown argument when discussing this topic and is demeaning to the homeschooling movement. There are many people who pay taxes and do not have children and do not return anything, many people spend years without the need for police or firefighters and do not return what they do not use. Therefore, stating that you pay taxes is not an argument for why your children deserve to participate in public school sports. It is also not a constitutional right to be allowed to play sports. For example, in 1996, a New York appeals court ruled against a homeschool student whose local school district denied him access to interscholastic sports. The court held that, “[P]participation in interscholastic sports is merely an expectation and no fundamental right is involved…” Bradstreet v. Sobol, 650 NYS2d 402, 403 (AD3 Dept 1996).

Referring to another earlier case across the country, the Montana Supreme Court decided that “participation in extracurricular activities was not a fundamental right.” (supra. 1316) The court could not conclude that “the interest of a private school student in participating in public school extracurricular activities outweighs the policy decision of the school district… that it needs to restrict participation to those students who are enrolled in the public education system.” Kaptein v. Conrad School District, 931 P.2nd 1311, 1317 (Mont 1997).

While the debate for homeschoolers to play public sports will be decided by local laws, we must keep in mind that these are children and if we are going to deny them the right to play in public schools, we must provide them every opportunity to play in them. organized sports it would be unfair to close one door without opening another.