The Virginia House Of Delegates has passed a bill, many are calling the “Tebow bill”, that will allow homeschool students to play and compete on public school teams (not just sports but stuff like debate teams).

Initially I would oppose such a bill.  It’s created out of religious hysteria and inspired by a very bad quarterback that ultra religious freaks are championing.  It’s a patronizing and populous issue created by conservative politicians appealing to religious conservative voters.

One argument against letting homeschool students try out for public school teams is that the homeschool students don’t have to go by the same qaulifications as the public school students.  We’re talking about qualifications such as grade point average and attendance.  If anything, homeschool students should have perfect attendance.  I think that argument has a lot of merit and it makes it tough for me to be on the side of this bill.

But I am on the side of this bill, despite how ugly and why it was created (and despite who it’s named after).  One argument for the bill is that homeschool student’s parents still pay taxes that support public schools.  That pretty much does it for me.  I don’t think kids should be punished or denied an opportunity because of politics or religion.

I do think they need to do something about the qualifications.  Maybe the public schools can adopt a portion of Newt Gingrich’s idea and make the homeschool students spend so many hours cleaning bathrooms.

Here’s the rough.