February 9th, 2008 
David | Tell us what you think: Some fans coming to this blog might not know that Tim Tebow was home-schooled and didn’t actually attend classes at Nease High School, he only played football there. In Florida, and probably most states, students who are home-schooled still have the option of playing sports at the school in their district.
The Washington Post had a very interesting article in their paper about if home-school students having the right to play sports at a public high school is fair or not. The article specifically targets Tim Tebow, probably because he’s one of the most famous home-schooled students in all of sports. You can read the entire article here. Below a little excerpt from the article.
Parents who choose to home-school do so for a variety of reasons: because their child is ahead or behind academically, religious beliefs, family considerations or dissatisfaction with local schools. Whatever the reason, they have chosen to bypass the extracurricular activities that the local public school offers, including sports.
Public high school uniforms don’t have the names of neighborhoods or school districts on them. They have the names of schools. Being an area resident doesn’t make you a representative of the school. Going to that school makes you a representative.
I don’t have any problem with home-schooled students getting to play sports at a public high school. The parents do pay taxes right? Those taxes go to supporting the schools. In my opinion, that’s the biggest reason why this should be a non-issue.
What do you think about it?
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very good point, they are/were tax paying citizens of that area however i believe there is a fundamental problem in homeschooled students playing public school sports and you mentioned it when you note ” Parents who choose to home-school do so for a variety of reasons: because their child is ahead or behind academically” Those public school student athletes have to maintain a certain gpa to play in those sports, and that is possible because their academic performance is easily reviewed by their schools. in the case of tim and other home schooled athletes their curriculum is much much more scrutinized because they ever truly know what academic performance is achieved in home schooling.
I think being homeschooled worked out OK for Tim. He’s got like a 3.8 GPA at UF.
tebow is an acceptionable case. his 1st semester gpa was actually a 3.72 but thats not the point. independent of the fact that he’s a smart guy there still stands, at the high school level, an emphasis on a curriculum based performance that home schooled kids can skirt at will.
Just looking for some info for an article and wanted to chime in on this one….very late, I know. BUT most states do not allow homeschoolers to play public school sports because of recruiting issues, etc. It’s unfortunate. The grades are a non-issue. Homeschoolers would need to report academic progress and defend their grade status like every other student. Personally I have kids in homeschool and public school THere are benefits of both. Percentage-wise, I know more athletes flunking courses in the public school arena than in the homeschool path.