[pnh102]

Lemme guess, they were worried that the home schoolers would be regularly handing the other students their collective rear ends?

[aberaussie]

It is not always easy to tell who the homeschoolers are in these competitions because each state has different rules regarding homeschooling. Some homeschoolers will look like they are part of a private school. Our group includes "Homeschoolers" in its name, so it is obvious. We have been competing for sixteen years and qualified for the state competition four our of those sixteen years. I don't really see homeschoolers as being that much of a threat! There just aren't that many of us participating...and a winning team, at least for us, takes at least two strong math students plus two more above average math students. Brick and mortar schools have many more students to draw from and should not be afraid of us...

That said, my homeschooled son was 58th nationally in 2000.. ;-)

[N3WBI3]

Well, to be fair, most schools don’t get to pick and choose their membership. Where as a homeschooling team can do nothing but select the best kids from all over.

A better compromise would be to require that members of a home school team are all from the same zip code..