Surprise school sports legislation stirs up critics in Wisconsin (non-public school kids get access)

Duluth News Tribune ^ | May 25, 2015 | Dana Ferguson

[Cincinatus' Wife]

MADISON — Critics are blasting Wisconsin legislators after the state's budget committee passed a surprise motion last week that would allow private, home-schooled and online charter students to participate in public school district athletics and activities.

The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee passed a motion early Wednesday morning that included the plan.

The plan wasn't addressed in the meeting.

"For that to be done in a sneaky, behind the scenes fashion and passed at 1:30 in the morning without any discussion ... that's a problem," said Larry Kaseman, executive director of the Wisconsin Parents Association.

While nonpublic school students in some cities are currently involved in activities or co-op sports teams, the provision would extend the opportunity to students across the state to be involved in their resident district's public school activities and athletics.

[Yaelle]

Awesome!!

[Alberta's Child]

Actually, my clear statement was that interscholastic sports as we have come to accept them have no place in a public school system.

Personally, I think this push to allow kids from private schools and homeschool arrangements into public school sports isn't going to last very long. It's going to come to an end -- at the insistence of homeschooling parents and private school parents -- under one or both of the following scenarios:

1. It will come to an end when the oversight of the private/home schools by the governing body for sports becomes overly intrusive.

2. It will come to a very rapid end the first time a public school team takes the field with a "home-schooled student" who claims to be 16 years old but is probably 22 ... who is unable to read or write his own name ... and who belongs to a racial/ethnic minority that is completely out of place in that town.

[ExCTCitizen]

The guy is complaining that this law was PASSED at 1:30 in the morning? I wonder if he complained about the time when Obamacare passed.

[ExCTCitizen]

True...the are taxpayers too!!!

[Yaelle]

I went to school from 2-23. After my MA it took about 15 years to stop dreaming I was a cog in a huge organization. Literally 15 years, maybe longer. In every dream I was “supposed to wait in this line” or “we had to walk past this, then go sit here.”

It was like how most of my dreams took place in the one house I lived in til 18, for decades too, but somehow worse. Everyone does have to hopefully live in a house. But my thoughts were so passive in my dream, every night. I was part of a “we are supposed to” flock of sheep. I thought like a subject of an institution. Eventually it stopped and now my dreams have me active and passive, all kinds of crazy things. But not always in a crowd, forced to go this way and that way. I’m not an inmate any more.

At least three of my four won’t think like that because they were homeschooled for many years.

[ladyjane]

All students in the schools who want to play sports have to compete to get a place on the team. Homeschoolers should be allowed to do the same. They shouldn’t be given any more or any less than those enrolled in the centers of liberal indoctrination.

College students who major in education have the lowest IQ’s and the lowest SAT scores of any major - even lower than journalism majors. Most government schools are not centers of excellence, although there are individual teachers who are kind, informed and very smart.

[ladyjane]

All students in the schools who want to play sports have to compete to get a place on the team. Homeschoolers should be allowed to do the same. They shouldn’t be given any more or any less than those enrolled in the centers of liberal indoctrination.

College students who major in education have the lowest IQ’s and the lowest SAT scores of any major - even lower than journalism majors. Most government schools are not centers of excellence, although there are individual teachers who are kind, informed and very smart.

[RKBA Democrat]

I guess all taxpayers are equal. Its just that those who use government schools are more equal than others.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Teachers in a snit over private school and homeschooled children being allowed to participate in public school sports teams.

FReep Mai me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.

[olezip]

"For that to be done in a sneaky, behind the scenes fashion and passed at 1:30 in the morning without any discussion ... that's a problem," said Larry Kaseman, executive director of the Wisconsin Parents Association.

This statement is nonsensical psycho-babble! All tax payers should have access to public education facilities and programs. It is THAT simple.

[freemama]

This is a tip of the hat to Milwaukee charter and parochial schools. talented athletes have a tough choice to make here whether they should go to a hater or partial school or to an underperforming MPS school that has an athletic program that is great. Some of these kids can get to college on athletic scholarships if they play for the right team in high school, so freeing them from having to go to the local public school for education but still allowing them in for sports helps get these student athletes a higher education.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

"For that to be done in a sneaky, behind the scenes fashion and passed at 1:30 in the morning without any discussion ... that's a problem," said Larry Kaseman, executive director of the Wisconsin Parents Association...Kaseman, head of the home-schooling advocacy group, said Rep. Bob Kulp (R-Stratford) reached out to the association in February to gauge its support for the measure. Kaseman sent a reply letter to Kulp in February that said the association opposed the measure because it could lead to increased government regulation of home-schooled students.

My family have been members of the WPA for about ten years, but we are cancelling our membership. I cringe every time Larry Kaseman opens his mouth and makes these absurd statements against homeschooler's best friends in the legislature. Decisions in committees often get voted on at late hours after everyone gets to speak. Providing home-schooled students with the option of participating in publicly funded activities won't hurt those who choose not to. Wisconsin clearly needs an alternative organization to represent homeschooling families.

[dowcaet]

Read between the lines. Liberals don’t want homeschooled children who are taught good values, morals, and to think for themselves to fraternize with public school kids who the libs spent so much time and all of OUR MONEY to indoctrinate and brainwash to believe in the leftist worldview of life.

[Mark was here]

I look at it this way. Parents do not pay taxes for their children to go to school. They pay taxes to “pay society back” for their opportunity of a public education. People with no children pay school taxes, and one is not charged taxes on a per student basis.

Todays children will be expected to pay for their opportunities in the future. Simply because they do not take advantage of what is offered, home school, private schooling what have you, the opportunity of the public education is there. They will be expected to pay for it.

So if todays children are actually paying for what is going on in todays public schools, and all they want to take advantage of is some sports or other activities, they should not be denied, as they are going to get the bill for it anyway.

[LibertarianLiz]

Why shouldn’t they be allowed? They pay taxes too.

Yes, people who send their kids to private or religious schools pay twice for their education.

Now, in the state of Washington, this had already happened some years ago, so that kids in private schools could join sports teams at the local public schools.

[Peet]

...children who are homeschooled are not “socialized” by association with other children.

---

So take ‘em in the bathroom, beat them up, and steal their lunch money.

[nathanbedford]

We have enacted state and federal laws prohibiting certain activities associated with white flight. For example, a realtor may not discuss the racial breakdown of the neighborhood but he can comment on the quality of the school which is essentially the same thing. We prohibit multifamily landlords from discriminating on the basis of race. Finally, we prohibit racial discrimination in the schools which is exactly what white flight is designed to circumvent.

I've not seen any statistical studies which tell me that homeschooling is motivated by the existence of integration in the schools. Interestingly, the same argument applied to sweeping away Plessy vs. Ferguson (separate is permitted if equal), socialization (integration and what it is believed to produce) is important and socialization in the school is important for stay-at-home kids. In the absence of data, it is not right to equate the two.

It seems that the tests and standards always run in one direction: It is not a test justifying homeschooling that the child is unsafe in the bathrooms but it is a test of the particular home school application if the parents harbor firearms or failed to maintain required records. Just as the idea of association as applied to homeschooling is a one-way street: important for socialization in general but not for socialization which might occur on the playing field.