Can We
Play?

DO WE WANT TO?

 

Home schoolers and sports.  It’s always been a sore spot.  When it comes to athletics, we just can’t take advantage of the opportunities in public schools.  Or can we?  Across the nation the debate is playing itself out in state capitals and courthouses—should home schoolers be allowed to play with their public school peers?  An equally intense debate is brewing among the home-school community.  “Who cares if we’re allowed to?  Why would we want to?”

 

by Kara Griffith

 

“They want everything.”  --Janet Bass, American Federation of Teachers

 

Z

an Tyler, a home-school mom in South Carolina, wants her two talented sons to have the chance to play public school sports. She has suggested equal access legis­lation, and is considering a lawsuit. “We don’t want to get rich; we’re not after money; we just want our children to be able to play,” Tyler said.

Her sons, John, age 14 and Ty, age 17, have both won state championships in soc­cer and are in the player pool of the state Olympic development team. After high school, there are very few sports on a com­munity level. For Ty this is a detri­ment to his future. “I want college recognition,” he says.

 

Through Congress or Courthouse, Equal Access is Spreading

The situation in South Carolina is not unique. Massachusetts and Hawaii are also pursuing equal access to public school activities. Home schoolers have been most effective so far by working through their state legislatures. Washington was the first state to enact equal access legislation allowing home schoolers to play; Oregon followed in 1991. Colorado, Arizona, and Florida are among a handful of other states which have recently opened up.

The typical bill or amendment allows a home schooler to participate in any inter-scholastic activity: sports, band, debate.  Students may only participate at the schools within their district, and must show acceptable test scores or academic achievement. If a student becomes ineligi­ble while in public school, he or she remains ineligible during his or her first two school years as a home schooler. Some legislation permits the school to receive extra money from the state by counting each home schooler as an enrollee.

Others are seeking the courts with mixed success. In Pennsylvania, one mom’s suit against the local school district failed. So far, however, home schoolers have been successful in Massachusetts. Four families hired a lawyer in separate suits against the state athletic association. While the courts have not yet heard the cases, each family was granted an injunction allowing their child to play.

 

We Don’t Need Them

The issue has split home schoolers into two separate camps: those who want to play in public school programs and those who think home schoolers should start their own teams.

Gary Gard, home-school dad and ath­letic director of the home-school team, the Virginia Beach Breakers, has broken some ground of his own. “One of the reasons that I am not wholeheartedly for this [legislation] is because I think home schoolers can compete in the sports arenas with the public schoolers and the private school kids,” he said. “We’ve been doing it now for five years.”

The Breakers offer boys’ baseball, bas­ketball, and soc­cer, as well as girls’ basketball, volleyball, and softball. They’ve done so well in the past against private schools that public schools sought them out for the ‘93-’94 season. “It gets pretty embarrassing for some of them sometimes,” Gard said. “My players have heard coaches using that as a rallying cry—if you let these guys beat you, you’re nobody; you’re nothing. Sorry, you just told your kids they’re noth­ing ‘cause we just beat ‘em. . . [Our kids] are taking pride in the fact that ‘Hey, we are home schoolers. This is who we are, and we can get right on the same court with you guys and play with you and beat you.’ And that’s not an ‘in-your-face’ attitude; it’s a ‘We are not sec­ond class citizens’ attitude.”

 

A Good Option or Hypocrisy?

The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is divided on the issue. “Our official position is we have no official position. . .there are pros and cons on both sides,” said Jenny Ethel, HSLDA media coordinator. Chris Klicka, HSLDA attorney, objects to home schoolers playing public school sports. “Although there are about six states that allow home schoolers to participate in public school sports, and have equal access to it, those states are very heavily regulated. . .Freedom gets traded off for services, and that’s something that rubs us the wrong way because we’ve been fighting so long to get away from government control. . .it just seems to be illogical to move back toward government handouts and drinking from the public trough.”

Fellow-HSLDA attorney Scott Somerville sees it differently. He supports the legislation. “A lot of home schoolers are not eager to fight for the right to play on high school sports teams. But, there are some children for whom this is the difference between being home schooled or not being home schooled.”

 

Public Schools Aren’t Inviting

For the most part, public schools aren’t welcoming home schoolers with open arms. They have their own arguments against the idea. “I think that an athlete has to go through a process of being involved with the student body in order to become a part of that student body,” said Tom Bass, a football coach who testified in equal access hearings before a congres­sional subcommittee in South Carolina. As a coach, he doesn’t feel that a home-schooler, who wouldn’t be under the eye of his coaches during the school day, could be an effective team member.

Similar thoughts were expressed in the Education Committee hearings in Oregon. The argument was that “there would be no way that a home schooler could come into a public school and all of a sudden be on the team and really represent the team,” said Gary Leinberg, home-school dad and main proponent of the bill. However, many of the Oregon legislators had moved their families to the capital during the legislative session. Their kids were playing on sports teams as newcom­ers, and fitting in—the same way home schoolers were asking to.

Janet Bass (presumably unrelated), spokesperson for the American Federation of Teachers, said that the AFT didn’t have an official position on the issue. But she thought that “the kids who go to the public schools ought to have the first crack at being on a sports team. I mean I’m not so sure that a kid who’s home schooled should be able to take advantage of the perks of going to a public school.”

But some disagree that sports are a perk. Gary Leinberg said of his opponents in Oregon, “They really didn’t have an argument because the bottom line is what is best for the home-school student. If their parents decide to home school them, and the state says [home schooling] is all right, then we really should provide a way for them to be able to participate in some-thing that everyone says is a very impor­tant part of the educational process.”

Of home schoolers wanting to play public school sports, Janet Bass, AFT spokesperson, said, “They want every-thing.” This is representative of the most prevalent argument among equal access opponents—that home schoolers have chosen their school and deserve the conse­quences. Pete Ayoub said that public school administrators look at it this way: “[They] basically say, ‘We think we have a very good program, and you’re welcome to be a part of it; if you choose to do oth­erwise, then that’s your choice; but you should not be allowed to pick and choose those parts of our program that you think are good.”

 

Home Schoolers Decry Discrimination

Home schoolers’ main premise is that they should be treated equally, or their tax money should be refunded. Scott Somerville argued that although home schoolers have opted out of the public school system, they haven’t gotten their taxes back. Therefore, they have a right to the pieces they want of public school edu­cation—including sports. Ayoub respond-ed to this idea, “I guess their argument is that they pay local taxes like I do and everybody else does, and therefore they claim some ownership in the local school. And I guess that’s something you could argue forever. . .I could get absurd with some of my responses,” he added. “I pay taxes that support the University of South Carolina, but in order for my son to play quarterback there, he’s got to go to school there. He can’t go to the Tech Center and play quarterback, but I still pay taxes that support that.”

“We’re not talking about an opportu­nity to go to college and participate,” said David Farnum in response to this argu­ment, “We’re talking about an opportuni­ty for children to participate on the local level where they grow up and with the kids that they grow up with.”

“My basic argument in all the cases,” said Robert Waldo, the attorney hired by home schoolers in Massachusetts, “was that the MIAA [Massachusetts Inter-scholastic Athletic Association] was dis­criminating against a discernible class of people, and they had every right to partic­ipate if they were otherwise academically qualified, and they met all the other requirements. . .They tried to say the kids don’t have a constitutional right to play in sports, and I think that’s true. And I said, ‘I’m not saying they have a constitutional right to play in sports, but they do have a constitutional right to be treated like everybody else and to try out for sports.’ I’m not saying that he has to make the team, just let him try out for the team.”

In spite of the anti-access arguments, some think that public schools are resisting the idea out of resentment that home schoolers exist. Statements such as “All I want to say on the matter is that I think that children would get a much better, more well-rounded education in a public school classroom in general, than being homeschooled,” by Janet Bass of the AFT, tend to fuel this idea. Scott Somerville commented, “There’s a handful of people running public schools who view each home schooler as a traitor and the last thing they want to do is to let these trai­tors play on the team. But to the vast majority of Americans, it doesn’t look that way at all. These folks are saving the tax-payers money, not betraying the communi­ty.”

 

South Carolina: The Change is Coming

South Carolina’s situation remains on hold until next year. “As a coach, I feel that there’s no real difficulty [with the legisla­tion],” said David Farnum, public school coach and home-school father. “I have a lot of coaching peers who I know feel that it wouldn’t be a difficulty. There are administrators who see administrative dif­ficulties, but I think those can be pretty easily worked around. I think our state is moving in that direction of readying itself for home-school participation.” Tom Bass shared the same thought, though with dif­ferent emotions. “I foresee it happening, but I’m not going to worry about it till it does happen. I’ll go by what the rules say, but I still think that there will be some problems.”

 

KARA GRIFFITH is a life-long home schooler and a regular writer for New Attitude. This is her third feature article.