Bill will give homeschooled kids more options

Sen. Mark Madsen didn't go so far as to name a bill after Tim Tebow, but when a home-schooled kid from Florida can win the Heisman Trophy, he said perhaps it's time to allow all home school kids into extracurricular activities.

The Eagle Mountain Republican defended his bill on Thursday in the Senate's Education Committee, arguing against the charge that parents would home school their children for the sole purpose of being able to hide academic progress while still getting them into sports.

Madsen called that idea one of the "potential little horribles" thought up by opponents that research doesn't back.

"Somehow every parent is suspect and a closet perjurer ready to abandon their honor so that their kids can participate in extracurricular activities," he said.

The time for being suspicious of home school parents is over, he said, as similar bills are popping up across the country and the home schooling population grows and becomes more legitimized.

But the eligibility question wouldn't go away on Thursday from both sides of the aisle. Sens. Patricia Jones and Ross Romero, both D-Salt Lake City, said they are willing to support a bill if it includes third party tracking of academics. Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, agreed. The bill will be held in committee until changes can be made.

Mark Van Wagoner of the Utah High School Activities Association said he couldn't support the bill either. An attorney, he said he's "seen parents suddenly forget the facts they once knew when their child had a chance to play on the basketball team. If they are cheating, how do we catch them?"

While Van Wagoner opposed Senate Bill 37, he supported its companion, Senate Bill 36. That bill allows for charter and online school students to participate in traditional extracurricular sports.

The association now has rules in place to allow charter and online students to participate in its activities. The problem is that schools and districts have to agree, and to some extent that's been a problem.

"That is a matter that needs to be solved, whether it's solved by this legislation or the state Office of Education," he said. "We've done everything that we think we can do on this issue."

The bill was carrying an amendment Thursday that clarified which school nontraditional students could attend. Those students would have to attend the school they would be assigned according to school district boundaries, or may go to another that they previously attended.

While the bill proposes a painstaking process to also compensate schools financially, Steve Peterson of the Utah School Boards Association and Utah Superintendents Association, said the costs of administration could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars because each school would have to deal with a separate formula. Madsen proposed to remedy that by making the formula uniform throughout the state.

The bill passed the committee unanimously and goes to the Senate floor for debate.

Senate Bills 36 and 37, Charter and Online Schools - Participation in Extracurricular Activities and Home School and Extra Curricular Activities Amendments

Sponsor: Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain

These bills address the eligibility of charter school students, those in online education programs, and home-schoolers to participate in extracurricular activities.

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