Reprinted from the Hartford Courant, November 10, 1997
Public school education isn’t a menu where youngsters can pick among
the offerings, discarding English or history if they’re not academically
oriented or electing to take only gym classes if they’re athletically
gifted.
If parents decided only to send their children to school to dine in the
cafeteria, play in the wind ensemble, or learn Russian, it would wreak havoc
with schedules and staffing levels. Planning would be impossible.
Obviously, parents who don’t like the structure, discipline, or quality
of public schools don’t have to enroll their children. It’s their
choice. Private and religious schools are perfectly acceptable alternatives,
as is home schooling, the preferred method of about 500 families in Connecticut.
But the claim that children who have opted out of public school should be
allowed to sing in their chorus or join the Honor Society because their
parents pay taxes is specious.
For whatever reason, those fami lies have made a decision to abandon the
public schools. They can’t have it both ways.
So the argument that Laura Robertson, a 14-year-old Milford girl who has
been educated at home for nine years, should be allowed to play on the Jonathan
Law High School basketball team because her parents pay local property taxes
doesn’t wash. If the Rob ertsons want their daughter to play a more
challenging brand of basketball than that provided by the local recreation
league, they should send Laura to Jonathan Law.
By the same token, Milford doesn’t allow home-schooled youngsters to
take part in any
extracurricular activities. Participation in such activities, says School
Superintendent Mary Jo Kramer, is a privilege to be earned by students who
meet strict academic and behavioral standards.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the governing body
for most high school sports, has sound rationale for declining the Robertsons’
request. A CIAC official said it was unfair that a public-school athlete
has to obey “rigid school and academic regulations” while a home-educated
athlete does not.
That’s true. Although the rules differ slightly from district to district,
nearly every public school system requires athletes to maintain passing
grades to participate in sports. There is no such requirement for children
educated at home, says the St ate Department of Education.
Parents must only demonstrate that their child is receiving “equivalent
instruction in the studies taught in the public schools.” No proof
is required that the child has mastered the curriculum. In addition, home-schooled
students don’t have to take an y standardized test that measures knowledge,
skills, and comprehension.
Thus, if Laura Robertson was permitted to play on the basketball team, a
double standard would be in effect. How fair is that to the families whose
youngsters are dismissed from athletic teams because they’ve failed
to meet certain arbitrary criteria? T hey pay taxes, too.
The CIAC should stand its ground. If the Robertsons want Laura to play on
the Jonathan Law girls’ basketball team, they should enroll her in
high school and let her compete — the same as everyone else.