Tim Tebow Law offers new opportunity for homeschooled students

Sylvia Wertz Columnist

Competitive sports offer an amazing opportunity for students. Individuals who haven’t participated in sports before can discover new talents to be trained and honed. But a small segment of students don’t have that advantage until they reach college level sports.

House Bill 947, nicknamed the “Tim Tebow Law” after former homeschooler and current Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, would enable homeschooled students in Virginia the opportunity to participate in public school sports. This legislation is crucial because every student athlete knows that highschool performance is the basis for all major recruitment into college sports.

Homeschooled students have limited chances to interact with peers outside their home or neighborhood. It is important that young students build social skills by interacting with others, whether it is through classes or extracurricular activities. Social experiences are as important as academic performance when it comes to real-world interaction.

Not only do these students lack social opportunities, but also competitive challenges. Sports are an integral part to any college experience. Like all skills, you have to train, grow, and nurture your talents in order to make it through college and into the real world. Homeschoolers lack the opportunities presented to students that attend public school, such as the pressure of competition and the allure of scholarships. The Tim Tebow Law would finally allow homeschooled students an equal opportunity to compete, for both medals and scholarships.

Homeschool sports leagues often lack a competitive air and the only people that really care are the parents. Students with genuine talent are stuck playing with others that may be less enthusiastic or competitive than they are. They also lack the opportunity to play with other skilled players you would find on public high school teams.

Students also miss out on recruitment and scholarship opportunities for their upcoming college years. Along with that, they have to work harder to prove themselves to make it onto the university teams.

Opponents of the bill argue that homeschoolers do not meet all 13 Virginia qualifications for student participation in sports. Allowing homeschooled students to participate on high-school teams would give the homeschoolers an advantage over the students who are in the public schools and do not qualify. They also think that they are not up to par academically.

The Home School Legal Defense Authority, however, rebukes this claim. According to a recent study, homeschooled students outperform public school students by 34 to 39 percent above the national average in standardized tests.

Supporters argue that the Tim Tebow Law helps bring about the social experiences that students don’t get through homeschooling, social experience that is highly valuable to life during and after college. Furthermore, 14 states already

Obama issues empty threats to colleges

Shane Wade Opinion Editor

With state legislators making sharp cuts to the funding of public colleges, average tuition and fees edging more than $8,000 per year and frustration over the ever-mounting credit debt of recent college graduates coming to a boil, college students are surely in need of financial aid or reform.

In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama threatened to cut federal funds to colleges and universities if they failed to stabilize and control the rising cost of tuition.

But will the president’s threats draw the desired reaction? Probably not.

While his proposal sounds tough, and every sane person is in favor of decreasing the cost of college, it also sounds a bit unlikely and paradoxical.

Colleges raise the cost of tuition to do a number of necessary things that keep their institution afloat, as well as adjusting for the cost of inflation. In fact, the rising tuition costs are a direct response to budgetary cuts from federal and state governments.

The federal funding that colleges and universities receive comes in the form of research funds, Pell Grants and subsidized loans. Cuts to those funds would mostly harm students, either through their wallets or through the lost opportunity to conduct valuable university research that can be put on their résumés.

If the president intends to punish the institutes in this manner, it can and will have a detrimental and direct effect upon students.

Federal funding has become decentralized from the institutions; instead of fueling and funding the actual colleges, most of the financial aid follows the individual student, for better or for worse.

Furthermore, cutting federal funding for colleges if they don’t lower or maintain cost sounds an awful lot like an unfunded mandate, similar to former President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” Act, which critics derailed as a drain on state coffers.

But something must be done, and as ideologically dismissive as the notion may be for some, the federal government must be the one to take action.

Contrary to what some of the president’s conservative critics might believe, the federal government absolutely has a place in the financial regulation of higher education. Our nation’s ability to prosper economically is now more than ever reliant on the academic success of students, particularly those majoring in hard sciences, business and engineering.

Higher education should not be a luxury; luxuries are for the few: the metaphorical 1 percent. If the country

COMICS | Trying too hard by Andy Kay

allow homeschoolers to participate in public school sports programs, with little or no problems reported.

As we all know, every little thing that goes into our college applications and resumes helps. For too long incoming homeschooled students have been slighted from their chance to participate on competitive sports teams. It’s time for them to get the opportunity they deserve. CT as a whole is to prosper, success must be built from the bottom up. The construction of a mansion begins with the floor, not the chimney.

The educational sector must not be forced to make any additional sacrifices. Years of budget cuts and financial slights from both the federal and state government have put them in this corner. It’s not a point of pride when university presidents are forced to discuss the prices of their schools. The academic exclusivity colleges and universities tout should arise from academic performance, not high price tags.

President Obama has made some valuable achievements to make a college degree more accessible for students, including doubling funds for Pell Grants, capping the maximum amount of monthly student-loan repayment and introducing the $2,500 American Opportunity tax credit for tuition expenses. But now it’s time for our elected leaders to show their commitment to American students.

Only the power of cold, wordy legislation from Congress can bring about the education reforms students need. CT

Opinions expressed are those of individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Commonwealth Times or Virginia Commonwealth University. Unsigned editorials represent the institutional opinion of The CT.

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