Opinion: Why home-schoolers should have equal access to UIL activities

Everyone is familiar with home schooling these days. Virtually any family who isn’t home schooling their own children knows numerous other families who are.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that between the spring of 2020 and the fall of 2020, home schooling doubled across the United States. In Texas, home schooling nearly tripled, rising from 4.5% to 12.3%. By far, the largest growth was among minority families. 

This means that there are currently more than 750,000 home-school students in the State of Texas, approximately as many as all private school students and charter school students combined. 

These families home school for a plethora of different reasons ranging from academic needs to bullying to learning disabilities to racism in the local schools. Home schooling is the fastest growing form of education in America, and it has been since long before the pandemic.

Yet, home-school students remain the only major student type without access to adequate extracurricular options. In fact, in a 2019 survey by the Texas Home School Coalition, families reported extracurricular opportunities as the number one type of opportunity they most needed better access to.

Whereas public, private, and charter school students all have campuses and student bodies that allow for the creation of extracurricular leagues, many home-school families do not have adequate options. 

A quarter of home-school families live in rural areas. For these families, often, there are literally no local options. I’ve spoken to many home-school families who drive 3-plus hours one-way to reach the nearest extracurricular program for their children.

Home-school families in metropolitan areas can create some extracurricular options, but these private options are often extremely expensive. This is significant since a large percentage of home-school families are low-income families, leaving many of them no affordable extracurricular alternatives.

Home-school families in Texas currently save the state more than 7 billion dollars per year by paying taxes to the local school but then educating their children at home. However, these families are not allowed to participate in University Interscholastic League (UIL) activities at their local school. 

Thirty-five other states, dating back more than 50 years, have solved this problem by granting home-school students access to public school extracurricular activities in their local school. The Texas legislature is currently considering legislation to do the same thing (HB 547 and SB 491). That legislation is scheduled for a vote on the House floor sometime this week.

Texas is one of a handful of states that has not granted home-school students equal access to these activities, even though the track-record of success for the policy is strong. 

Families who home-school their children do so because they believe the home schooling model best meets the needs of their student. Currently, Texas is forcing these students to choose between the model of education they are best suited for and the extracurricular activities where they can develop their talents, pursue their passion, and even obtain scholarship and career opportunities.

Home schooling has become a mainstream form of education, regularly producing students who score 15-30 percentile points above average on national standardized tests. These hard-working students should have the same equal access to extracurricular activities as their peers.

In 2021, Texas can solve that problem. The Texas Legislature should pass HB 547 and SB 491 to finally provide home-school students equal access to UIL extracurricular activities.

Jeremy Newman is the director of Public Policy for the Texas Home School Coalition