Cross-posted from the Charters and Choice blog.
Your parents can teach you math, but they can’t necessarily provide you with a football team to play on. A bill that would allow home-schooled students to play on public school sports teams is likely to re-emerge in the Missouri legislature, according to The Columbia Missourian.
State Rep. Elijah Haahr, a Republican, has pushed similar legislation in the past, and has promised to do so again after his recent reelection. Haahr was a home-schooled student.
But some public school officials are worried that home-schooled students will have an unfair advantage over their teammates. The head of the state’s high school activities association told The Columbia Missourian that a home-schooled student could spend his or her day practicing their curve ball while their public school teammates are in class. Others expressed concern over home schoolers switching teams and, in general, not being held to the same academic eligibility standards as public school student athletes.
About half the states in the U.S. allow home schoolers to play on public school sports teams, and there are ongoing efforts to expand that number. Ohio passed a law last year allowing both home and private school students to join their local public school sports teams.
In other home schooling news, Pennsylvania lawmakers passed a bill that ends superintendent reviews of home schoolers, according to Triblive.com.
Originally parents were required to hire an independent reviewer who evaluated the student before sending the assessment to the district for the superintendent’s approval.