Three Strikes You'Re Out

Three Strikes You’re Out Imagine that you are in high school and are thinking about playing one of the sports offered, like baseball for example. Certainly qualifying to be part of the team is not that simple if certain eligibility requirements are proposed. However, let us say you work you tail off in order to meet the requirements, do you get to be part of the team? Homeschooled students, when given the same opportunity to play sports as you, can affect your chances of taking a spot on the team. Reasons like this that oppose the rights of homeschoolers are becoming more serious especially with the increasing number of those students. Discussed in his opinion editorial titled, “Arguments and Counterargument,” the first point Michael McCann focuses on is about parents of homeschoolers who seek fairness through their taxes. He then considers how public sports benefit homeschoolers, and lastly addresses the academic inequality amongst homeschoolers and public school kids. Overall, McCann is somewhat effective in explaining the issue of homeschoolers and their opportunity to participate in local school sports. McCann begins to lose credibility by mentioning how parents of homeschoolers should receive benefits from paying taxes. He notes that parents help out local schools “through their taxes”, and that ultimately “access to taxpayer-funded sports seems like a benefit worthy of inclusion rather that exclusion” (par. 1). It may seem right for parents to receive such benefits, but many people without kids pay taxes that benefit schools and do not acquire benefits of any sort. An article written by Bob Cook mentions that in Illinois, “state funding of the schools is determined by actual attendance. So the homeschooling parents would end up getting services on state taxpayers’ dime”(Cook par. 5). Ken Tilley writes in his op-ed titled, “A Privilege, Not a Right” that “[j]ust because you pay taxes doesn’t mean you get to be on a high school sports team”(par.2) Leaving

Cited: McCann, Michael . "Arguments and Counterarguments." New York Times 09 Feb 2012, n. pag. Print. 19 Mar. 2013. Cook, Bob. "Homeschool parents deservedly lose battle to get kids on public school teams." trueslant.com. True/Slant, 11 May 2010. Web. 19 Mar 2013. Tilley, Ken. "A Privilege, Not a Right." New York Times 08 Feb 2012, n. pag. Print. 19 Mar. 2013 "Homeschoolers Take the Field." The Home School Court Report. HSLDA, n.d. Web. 19 Mar 2013. <http://www.hslda.org/courtreport/V22N5/V22N501.asp>. "Homeschoolers and Sports Participation." Illinois H.O.U.S.E.. N.p.. Web. 19 Mar 2013. <http://www.illinoishouse.org/a09.php>.