By Geoff Pender
Mississippi Today

The state House advanced a bill that would allow Mississippi children being home schooled to to play public school sports.

Similar legislation has been considered or passed in other states and has become known as the “Tim Tebow Act,” named for the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback who was home schooled in Florida.

House Bill 1617 was authored by House Education Chairman Rob Roberson and Rep. Jon Lancaster, R-Houston. It passed the House 76-26, and now heads to the Senate.

Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, who presented the measure for a House vote Tuesday, said it would require home-schooled students to participate in statewide testing and meet academic standards required of public school students to play sports.

“As we’ve debated it through the process, that’s the one thing we heard the most, that the students be held to the same academic standards,” Owen said.

The bill was amended by the House to remove a provision that would allow public schools to charge home-school students more in activity fees for sports. That was removed, so the students could only be charged what regular public school students pay.

“The parents are paying taxes like everybody else in their district, why charge them above and beyond?” Owen said.

This story is republished from Mississippi Today under a Creative Commons license.