FLORIDA
High School Activities Association Shuts Out Home Schoolers
The Florida High School Activities Association (FHSAA) met in October to decide whether home schoolers would be allowed to participate in any interscholastic activities in Florida. Despite the strong objections by the representative from the Commissioner of Education, the FHSAA voted to absolutely bar all participation by home schoolers. As most Florida families will remember, the legislature all but unanimously voted for legislation that would open interscholastic and extracurricular activities to home schoolers this year. Governor Lawton Chiles vetoed the legislation, suggesting that it was unnecessary, since school districts were free to permit home schoolers to participate on sports teams. The governor's shocking veto came after the legislature had adjourned for the year, giving them no opportunity to override his decision.
Florida home schoolers are still considering how to respond to this challenge. One obvious recourse is to form a home school sports league—in fact, one has already been formed. Home schoolers in other states have discovered that it is easier to run a league than they might have imagined—Houston, Texas, for example, has 32 basketball teams composed solely of home schoolers! The FHSAA has been so completely arbitrary that a home school league might rapidly draw in private Christian schools as well.
Brenda Dickinson, Florida's home school lobbyist, is still trying to put together legislation that would put the FHSAA in its place. But she anticipates that the FHSAA will begin pressuring legislators to vote against any bill designed to tame this tyrannical organization. We encourage families to contact their legislators now and remind them of their vote on this issue last year. It's time the FHSAA learned that there are some educators in Florida who won't be pushed around!
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