Benefits of Homeschooling for Athletes

Imagine being very athletic, but you can’t participate in school sports because you’re a homeschooler. How about if you’re the starting point guard for your basketball team in your school, then one day you lose your starting position to homeschoolers. Should homeschoolers be allowed to play public school sports? “There are approximately 1.7 million students who are homeschooled in the United States – about 3.4 percent of the school-age population – according to a 2014 report from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education. This number has more than doubled since the report was first conducted in 1999” (Sieck).

This debate has been going on for decades. One side says parents pay taxes to the community, which goes toward the public schools and so they should be allowed to play sports which encourage all kids to be healthy and active. Tim Tebow, the former NFL quarterback and Minor League Baseball outfielder, was a homeschooled athlete till college.

However, opponents may say school budgets cannot afford to add homeschoolers to the athletics budget. In addition, kids could get jealous of homeschoolers and they would have to worried about making it to practice on time. Also, because they are not regularly at the school, they may not have access to the most current team information such as team meetings. Parents will complain about homeschoolers playing on school sport teams.

Tim Tebow former NFL QB and now St. Lucie Mets Outfielder, was homeschooled in Florida and because, in 1996, Florida had enacted a law allowing homeschool students to participate in public school sports, Tebow played quarterback for the Allen D. Nease High School team in St. Augustine. Tebow is a homeschool graduate, he was homeschooled until college. In his book “Who You Are, Live Like It Matters: A Homeschooler’s Interactive Guide to Discovering Your True” he discussed his life as a homeschooler, he said being homeschooled came with its fair of difficulties. Tebow said one of the toughest things to him about being homeschooled is probably wondering at times what he was missing out on. He said he would also wonder what other kids were doing in more traditional school systems. He was able to learn on a unique and flexible way. “Homeschooling has increased steadily over the years, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In 1999, the first year a report was issued by the department, there were 850,000 children being homeschooled in America. In 2013, the most recent report, there were more than 1.7 million children being taught from home. (Woodman).

Since Tebow was allowed to play football in High School by the state of Florida which allowed recruiters to see the young star play football and ultimately led to his college career with the Florida Gators. After taking the Gators to two BCS champion, he was later drafted by the Denver Broncos with the 8th pick. If the state of Florida never let Tebow play public school sports, the world would of never known about him and how talented he was in football and baseball. Now he’s a public figure, he’s a great role model to young men’s around the world, he’s a spokesman for ESPN and he’s also the 2007 Heisman winner. They only give that award to player who carry their team all season long with amazing stats and highlight pays. The next Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, Derrick Rose or Kevin Durant could be at home right now getting homeschooled but we won’t know that if the state, community, or school districts doesn’t let homeschool students play public school sports.

Homeschoolers should have no problems playing high school sports, but they do because of the district the homeschooler’s lives in, the students who attend that school, and the parents of the student who attend the school. “ With the Tebow Bill floating around, many people think that those students should not participate because they do not attend their government funded district public high school. They think that school athletic funds should only be used for the students who are attending the school, and not for homeschoolers.” (Chen). That’s so unfair to the homeschooler’s because their parents pay taxes which is used to improve the school district and community. If they don’t let homeschool students play public school sports, they shouldn’t deduct community school taxes from those parents homeschooler paychecks. That’s unfair because the school district is using the homeschooler parents tax money to fund their sports programs and other stuff. That’s like paying for your food at Wendy’s but they don’t let you eat inside.

The people who says no to it, feel you should be part of the system or you choose not to be a part of that system. Meaning that if you want your kids to participate in school sports and other activities, you should just let your kids enroll in the school so they could get the full experience. “A frequent argument against allowing homeschoolers to participate in public school sports programs was summed up by Florence City Schools Superintendent Janet Womack who said, “The issue we run into that I am opposed to, and most of my colleagues are opposed to, would be parents being able to pick and choose that your school is good enough for my child when it comes to fine arts and athletics or career tech, but your school is not good enough for the other things,” Womack said. “I don’t believe you can have your cake and eat it, too.” (Josh)

Homeschooled students don’t meet academic eligibility requirements to participate, meaning the school district won’t know if the homeschool students is passing or failing at homeschool. That’s something both side have agreed on, multiple homeschooled parents have also agreed to provide their homeschooled children’s grade to the district and coaches. Even with parents agreeing to provide the grades, they still faces challenges from the school district saying the homeschool student aren’t taking the same amount of classes. “In Illinois, the school district 301 board recently heard arguments for and against establishing a rule that would allow homeschoolers to join public school teams. According to the Courier News, one board member objected to the proposal, arguing that it would not be fair to public school students who must meet certain grade point average requirements to play sports.” (Chen).

“Some school board members worry that homeschooled athletes might take spots on teams that should rightfully go to public school students. In the Courier News article on the debate, Mike Roberts, a school board member against letting homeschooled children into the teams, is quoted as saying, ‘I would hate to see kids at school sit on the bench or not make the team for this kid who is an outsider anyway.’”(Courier News). I totally agree with this because a lot of kids would feel some type of way if a students who doesn’t attend their school just comes in and takes a kid attending the school starting position. This would make the kid attending the school jealous and angry. In the kid’s head he’s going to be thinking how a kid who stays at home all day just comes out of nowhere takes his spot on the line-up, all his hard work he’s been doing in school to stay on team, doesn’t mean nothing then if he could lose his position that easily. So I could see why parents don’t want homeschooled kids participating in school activities and events, it’s unfair to their kids who actually attend the school.

I believe all kids should get the opportunity to play public school sports and participate in school district activities. Reason one being is that homeschooled parents pay taxes that goes toward the school and the community, so if their homeschooled kids want to participate in school sports they should no question ask. Even though they are homeschooled, they still live in the community and probably know most of the kids on these teams so what’s the harm. Neglecting one kid from something that all his friends are doing is really not fair, I understand that the kid’s not attending the school district but he or she is still getting educated from home. Education might be a little bit different but they’re still receiving it. It is almost impossible to gain a collegiate athletic scholarship in American football without having played high school football. Not just football, that’s with most sports basketball, soccer, badminton, wrestling, and volleyball. You need high school sports to get a scholarship and you also need it to if you plan on playing college sports. I’m not saying you need high school sports to get into college but if you want to play college sports while attending college, you need those high school sports highlights to show to college coaches so they could what he or she is capable of. So not letting homeschooled students play public school sports is hurting them. Without being able to participate in public school sports, homeschooled kids would not be able to participate in any school-sanctioned sports and compete with other schools, as playing sports for private schools would require more money.

Homeschooled students playing public sports in the community they live in wouldn’t affect the community or school. Coaches could still keep up with the homeschooled student grades, the homeschooled student could bring the grade form to the coaches for him to check, if he needs more information he could ask the students mentor or parents for more information, it’s never that difficult to let homeschooled student play public school sports. Statistics have shown that a large majority of states dollars go toward education. The reason why I am saying this is because, the school district should have no excuses like we can’t afford to have a homeschooled student on the teams. Also encourage homeschooled students to be active and encourages them to be healthy. If the homeschooled student is good at the sport he or she is playing, the school will start getting a lot of attention because of that homeschooled student performance he or she is playing. For example let say the starting quarterback is a homeschooled athlete, let say he’s putting up numbers like 400 yards and 6 TDs a game, let also say theirs 12 games in a season. If you do the math that’s 4,800 yards 72 TDs in one season, yes that is possibly look up the ESPN 300 recruiting class. A homeschooled student playing sports in a public school is a good thing for the homeschooled student and the school, the homeschooled student is bringing more fans to come watch the football team play. A lot of college coaches will come and watch and they’ll see the other talented teammates he has and they could possible get a scholarship also. But if public school continue to neglect homeschooled kids, they’ll never know what could really happen for example look at Tim Tebow (I spoke about him already).