(Photo from Tim Tebow's website)
- The legislation now heads to the Senate for consideration where the Education Committee chairman failed to bring a similar bill forward in the chamber last week.
The Mississippi House of Representatives bucked the lobbyists and passed what is referred to as the “Tim Tebow” Act on Tuesday by a vote of 76-26.
As previously reported, over 30 states have some form of a “Tim Tebow” law, allowing homeschool students to participate in public school sports and extracurricular activities. Mississippi is currently not one of them.
Lobbyists, such as The Parents Campaign, have sought to kill the legislation yet again after nearly a decade of having similar legislation filed to address the issue. They have portrayed homeschool students as possibly gaming the system by dropping out of public school, staying at home, purchasing a “portfolio,” “and still take advantage of the rewarding activities public school students must earn.”
“Tim Tebow” laws are named after the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback who famously began his athletic journey as a homeschool student in Florida. He was allowed to play public high school sports and excelled, leading his team to a state championship. Tebow went on to play for the University of Florida where his team won the National Championship in 2006 and 2008. He was the first homeschooled athlete to win the Heisman Trophy.
In presenting the legislation in the Mississippi House on Tuesday, State Rep. Jansen Owen (R) noted that homeschool parents pay the same local and state taxes as those who send their children to public school.
However, to address concerns raised by some opposed to the legislation who claim that homeschool students do not meet the same academic standards as public school students, the legislation requires that homeschool students seeking to participate in public school activities take and pass state testing.
An amendment offered by State Rep. Jonathan Lancaster (R) removed the ability for the schools to charge an activities fee to homeschoolers over and above that which is charged to public school students. It passed the House without debate.
The legislation now heads to the Senate for consideration where Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar (R) failed to bring a similar bill forward in the chamber last week.
A report from Johns Hopkins School of Education notes that estimates from the U.S. Census indicate that 5.5 percent of all K-12 students in Mississippi, on average, were homeschooled during the 2022 and 2023 school years.
Mississippi’s public school enrollment has dropped nearly 30,000, or 6.3 percent, from 466,002 students in the 2019-2020 school year to 436,523 in the 2023-2024 school year.
Frank Corder
