Posted by Howard Richman on November 11 2005 at 08:53:03:
The Allentown Morning Call published an article about the ceremony by Christina Gostomski. Here´s a selection:
After a decade of failed attempts to force public schools to open extracurricular activities to homeschooled children, proponents of the legislation — led by Allentown resident Peter Hrycenko — scored a long-fought-for victory with the governor´s signature.HowardBut critics said the law overrides the local control of school boards and paves the way for legislation mandating school districts to permit homeschoolers in curricular activities as well.
"I think Pandora´s box has been opened," said Bethlehem Area School District Superintendent Joseph Lewis....
Rendell said it was only "fair" that homeschooling parents who pay property taxes to school districts be allowed to enroll their children in extracurricular activities. Homeschooling parents have long contended that their children should be allowed to participate in district activities for that reason.
Hrycenko, who began lobbying for the legislation after his homeschooled son was banned from Allen High School´s soccer team, described the law´s final passage as "a pleasant shock."
Hrycenko´s son, Nestor, now out of high school, wanted to join Allen High School´s soccer team in ninth grade but was barred. The district relented in Nestor´s senior year. Hrycenko estimates 5 percent of homeschooled children will enroll in extracurricular activities at public schools.
But some educators fretted Thursday about increased costs and difficulties verifying whether homeschoolers meet the same educational requirements as their public school counterparts.
"For smaller districts, it may not be that much of a problem because they´ll only see one or two [homesechooled] students [enroll]. But for a larger district like Bethlehem, it could be much more of a [financial] burden. We could see 40, 50, 60, 70 students," Lewis said, adding that the district has "several hundred" homeschooled students.
Lewis said it would be difficult to determine whether a homeschooled student met a school district´s attendance and grade standards for extracurricular participation.
And if it is later found that a district didn´t properly verify that a homeschooler on a winning team met the standards, than a game´s results could be overturned, or worse, a school winning a state championship could be stripped of its title, said Pennsylvania School Board Association legislative affairs director Tim Allwein.
The association lobbied against the law, saying "the decision should be made by home school boards," Allwein said.
Lewis worried that "the next step" would be for homeschoolers to fight for admission into curricular activities such as advanced science courses that are difficult for parents to teach at home. "Where do we draw the line?" he asked.
Ironically, the law also drew criticism Thursday from the Home School Legal Defense Association in Purcellville, Va.
The association doesn´t take a position on whether states should mandate opening extracurricular activities at public schools, spokesman Ian Slatter said. But the association opposes policies that require students to meet the same standards as public school students because that could open the door for schools to mandate that students participating in extracurricular activities take the same tests as public school students.
"We don´t like the entanglement with the public school system," Slatter said.
He said the association supports schools opening extracurricular activities to homeschoolers "as long as they don´t have to change their method of teaching or curriculum to play on the team.