Update on Legislation About Sports for Homeschoolers Please share this with your support group and prepare to • evaluate what you hear from other sources about the proposed sports bill and • talk with others. Please read the following. No other action is needed right now. You may have heard that allowing homeschoolers to play public school sports has not led to increased regulation of all homeschoolers in any of the 30 states that allow it. WPA’s response: Most other states require more of homeschoolers than Wisconsin, so they did not need to increase regulation. They require standardized testing, review and approval of curriculum, and/or reports to school officials. Wisconsin requires none of these. In order for Wisconsin homeschoolers to qualify to play sports, most likely either (1) public schools, the WIAA, and the general public would have to agree to accept parents’ word and PI-1206 report forms as enough, or (2) new requirements would have to be instituted for homeschool athletes to meet. Given the skepticism, criticism, and sometimes animosity with which homeschooling in general is regarded, the strong competition for the few prized spots on public school sports teams, and the emotion that surrounds sports, it seems unlikely that legislators, public schools, the WIAA, and much of the general public would accept option (1). Option (2) would mean that new state requirements would be placed on the few homeschoolers who want to play public school sports. It’s impossible to say for sure what would happen once these requirements were in place and accepted by athletes. Perhaps the requirements would not be placed on all homeschoolers. Perhaps they would. Just because they were not imposed on all homeschoolers in states that already had stronger state regulation does NOT mean they would not be imposed on all homeschoolers in Wisconsin. One thing is clear. Wisconsin homeschoolers would be one giant step closer to the state regulation that we have fought against for 30 years. You may have heard that Representative Thiesfeldt, the author of this bill, may amend it to build a “firewall” to protect homeschoolers from what he now recognizes as possible encroachments on homeschooling freedoms that his original bill could lead to. Although his changes have not been finalized, the basic idea seems to be to require agencies that govern public school sports (such as the WIAA) to accept a written statement from a homeschooling parent without any independent oversight or verification and to prohibit the DPI from writing regulations that could override this provision. In response to Rep. Thiesfeldt’s invitation, a WPA representative met with him yesterday and explained that such amendments were highly unlikely to be acceptable to the Wisconsin Legislature, and, even if they were, the Representative could not in any way guarantee that these protections would not be removed before the bill became law. In addition, even if the bill passed as he proposed, it could be changed during a future legislative session. You may hear that WPA’s position is too strong, that WPA is unreasonable in not being willing to risk having homeschoolers play public school sports. However, Wisconsin has one of the best homeschooling laws in the country precisely because homeschoolers working together through WPA have taken such strong stands, beginning in January 1984 when we agreed not to accept any unnecessary state regulation. WPA knows that freedom is not easily won and maintained. It requires sacrifice and taking strong, sometimes unpopular stands. Families gain some helpful things and lose others when they choose to homeschool. WPA will continue to take such strong stands. Will you stand with us or do you want to risk living and homeschooling under unnecessary state regulation? Thank you, The WPA Board
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 01:19:08 +0000
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