State Sen. Van Taylor (R-Plano) is spearheading another piece of conservative legislation, with the intent of helping homeschool kids and parents.
Senate Bill 640, also to known as the “Tim Tebow Bill,” has garnered the support of grassroots organizations, most particularly the Texas Homeschool Coalition (THSC.) The bill is nicknamed after the Heisman trophy winning quarterback from Florida, who was a homeschool student that participated in various different public school sports.
While homeschool participation in public school sports (as well as band and choir) was allowed under Florida law at the time, the idea remains illegal in the Lone Star State. In short, the bill would allow for Texas homeschool students to participate in UIL sports and extracurricular activities in their districts, a freedom that is already afforded to children in most other states across the Union.
If families opted to participate, a homeschool student would be allowed to “audition, try-out, and compete for positions and roles in extracurricular activities at their local school” upon completing and passing a limited amount of standardized testing (such as a national achievement test, Texas STAAR, or similar measure).
Homeschool parents argue that the freedom for their children to do so would stop them from having to sacrifice academic opportunity for athletic opportunity, and that their children should be afforded the opportunity to participate in sports at schools their tax dollars are funding.
Though the measure seems rather uncontroversial, it has been killed several years in a row upon arrival in the Texas State House, by liberal Straus allies.
Similar to years past, the bill passed the Texas State Senate decisively, and has arrived in the House Committee on Public Education. That committee is headed by State Rep. Dan Huberty (R-Kingwood,) a known loyalist to House Speaker Straus.
The THSC has helped make Texas one of the best states in the country for parents to have the freedom to educate their own children. They, alongside the thousands of homeschool families across the state, remain optimistic about the prospects of SB 640 passing this session.
Texans should support homeschool families across the state, and the freedom for the children of those families to participate in extracurricular activities at public schools which their tax dollars fund.
