And high school sports.
The legislative emotion factor on that last one amped up in each chamber when lawmakers on either side of the issue talked about the potential impact on kids. Kids like theirs.
As I told you earlier this month, state Rep. James Frank, who’s been pushing this for eight years, won House approval for his House Bill 547, which would allow school districts to let home-schooled kids participate in the broad variety of UIL activities, which include athletic, academic and arts competition.
The rules would be simple, yet controversial. Home-schooled kids could participate only via the public school they would attend if they attended school. And because the no-pass, no-play provision that governs public school students’ participation doesn’t work with home-schoolers, those kids would have to perform satisfactorily on standardized tests.