HB 1569 UIL and Public School Participation

Our Opinion:

The UIL is a public school organization that exists to provide rules and guidelines for almost all public schools sports and activites conducted between the schools. In order to full requirements for inclusion as a UIL student athlete or participating schools, there are a number of requirements that must be met both academically and athletically. These requirements are odious to us as homeschoolers as they fundamentaly undermine the freedoms we enjoy and cherish.

As far as we are able to determine, at this time the only way inclusion in UIL can be had is to submit to curricula, testing and scheduling oversights which all public school students must submit too. As it is now, only two Private schools, Dallas Jesuit and Houston Strake Jesuit have successfully been included in UIL and that with much legal machinations and sacrifice on their part.

No individual homeschooling family can possibly meet the rigors of UIL inclusion. Becasue we cannot meet these demands, it stands that we must give up some of our autonomy to the public school system and be answerable to them for the things we do in our daily homeschooling life. We must become Public schoolers. If we must become public schoolers to be UIL, then we should simply attend a public school. Indeed, to us it seems a discrimination against those in public schools to have homeschoolers participate under more relaxed UIL rules, when everyone else including other Private schoolers must labour under more stringent requirements.

Beyond the here and now, there is always the spectre of our homeschooling freedoms being stripped from us. When we take government money and handouts we open ourselves up to goernment oversight. Oversight is fair as the government agencies should be good stewards. That the educational authorities in Texas would like to woo homeschoolers is no secret. There is a price tag for every warm body that these agencies can claim. As homeschoolers we should all be wary of being wooed. The possibilty is very good that once we come under the watchful eye of TEA or SBOE, it will be impossible to remove ourselves.

HB1569 does something very subtle and dangerous. It is an attempt by a few of US to gain access to the public school system. It begins a dangerous message that Homeschoolers want public school access. A few of us are the ones waving the carrot (attendance and the monies associated with it) to woo the system into giving what a few of us see as a huge gain. It is a very dangerous game to play. At what point does it become not our seeking resources but the government demanding we take those resources? "After all some of us did ask for it and look how beneficial they are? " How do we guarantee that our autonomy will be remain intact if we grossly and cavalierly sacrifice them? Why is UIL or the use of a school's lab so much more important than making sure we can keep our way of life.

Supporting HB1569 gives the impression that a majority of homeschoolers want to use the public school system. It gives the impression that so many of us lack resources of one sort or another we need to turn to the public school system to make up the deficit. HomeSchool In Houston does not want to facilitate those impressions, we do not want to open our homeschooling way of life to government oversight and we do not believe that UIL inclusion best serves the need of the majority of homeschoolers.

We do not support this bill.

Chere Westmoreland

Owner HSINH