By: MetroNews Staff | Posted: Jan. 16, 2018 | Source: WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Clay County woman said she believes her two homeschooled sons, ages 16 and 11, are academically on par with their peers in public schools and she wants to see them and other homeschoolers have access to the same extracurriculars.
It’s about homeschool freedom and a parent’s right to choose, argued Wendy Summers with the Christian Home Educators of West Virginia on Tuesday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
MetroNews “Talkline” Wendy Summers
Tuesday was West Virginia Homeschool Day at the West Virginia Legislature.
The annual day focused on homeschoolers came with SB 130, the so-called “Tim Tebow bill,” pending in the Senate Finance Committee.
Tebow was a homeschooled student who joined a public high school football team in Florida and won a state championship before going on to win the Heisman Trophy with the Florida Gators.
As proposed, the bill would allow homeschooled students in West Virginia to participate in public school sports.
It was the first bill the Senate Education Committee passed during this year’s Regular Legislative Session.
“If a parent chooses to home educate, now they don’t have the option for public school sports, but some kids really, really benefit (from sports),” Summers said. “That’s a totally closed door to us right now.”
Included in the proposed bill currently are requirements that the activities fall under the state Secondary School Activities Commission, be in a student’s attendance area and apply the same disciplinary procedures to homeschooled students as public school students.
There is also a provision requiring participants to have been homeschooled for two years with some limited exceptions under a waiver program, Summers said.
Governor Jim Justice vetoed similar legislation last year that included students from private or religious schools that don’t sponsor sports.
Summers and her husband, who has a teaching degree, have been homeschooling their sons since the beginnings of their formal education.
She called it a “natural progression of being a parent.”
“Teaching them to talk and to walk and to interact with people and to count and their letters and all that stuff and it just grew out of that, coupled with the desire to have a more Christian-based education,” Summers said.
In her view, the debate about sports inclusion does not come down to “us,” homeschoolers, versus “them,” public schools.
In many parts of West Virginia, she noted high school sports are full community events.
“We’re paying taxes and we’re members of society and we go to the games and we support the schools. We don’t have a problem with that. We just want to join in just like everybody else,” Summers said.
Follow WV MetroNews on Twitter at @WVMetroNews.
