Tom Marshall, just curious how many home schooled students are we even talking about, trying out for a high school sport in Loudoun? It’s a shame your points in your letter lack common sense since we’re talking about 100 or less home school kids in loudoun(and then divide them between the 12 HS). And who’s to say they even want to try out for a HS sport? Meanwhile you didn’t have a problem socking it to the HS parents by charging $100/sport per season, which went into a general fund. Perhaps a little less brown nosing of Dr Hatrick and you might of been more respected but you and many others were always willing to give that blank check and just make the parents pay more… By the way, I have kids that play sports at HS level and encourage home schoolers to try out.

How intolerant, Mr. Marshall! Isn’t ‘tolerance’ the buzz word In today’s society? We, who homeschool our children, pay an exorbitant amount in taxes and consume NOTHING from our public schools, and you think trying out for a high school team is asking too much? This isn’t ‘us’ against ‘you’, so why do you write with such a divisive tone? We simply want our kids to be afforded the opportunity to tryout at the high school level. Aren’t public servants supposed to serve ALL children, not just the ones who attend public school? Homeschoolers, in general, have a very service-minded attitude toward their community and we teach our children to be producers in life instead of simply consuming. Can we not be served in this small, but much-needed way? Homeschooled athletes deserve no fewer opportunities than their public-schooled counterparts. And contrary to your implication that we don’t strive for academic achievement, you couldn’t be more off the mark: ” They don’t have to meet any particular education requirements at home.” Oh, really? You’re wrong about that, too.

Thank you to Delegate Tag Greason for demonstrating common sense and for seeing this as an opportunity for ALL involved within the community. Thank you on behalf of all homeschooling families and their athletes for supporting HB 947!

Former Delegate Marshall said public school students “represent their high schools in Loudoun and in all of Virginia with pride and who play by the rules.”  With this he implies that home educated students DON’T play by the rules?  That they won’t represent their local high school with pride?  That’s ridiculous.  If it was up to him, home educated students would never be allowed to represent their local high school.

For many years public, private and home educated students have grown up playing on local sports club teams.  Baseball, football, basketball, gymnastics, soccer, volleyball, lacrosse etc.  They make friendships and develop their athletic skills.  But once they reach the high school years the home educated students are banned from any opportunity to play sports at their peers highest level?

This is fear mongering at its worst! Mr. Marshall’s argument is full of red herrings. I’ve never understood why some public school advocates are so afraid of those of us who choose to homeschool our kids. If YOU are producing students/athletes/citizens who are so superior, then why react with this type of fear? Let the results show for themselves. And, quite frankly, if my tax dollars are heavily at work in the public schools, it just seems reasonable that my kids should receive some marginal benefit from them, wouldn’t you agree?

Seriously????!!!!  What ignorance on Mr. Marshall’s behalf.  First, if all the tax money was taken out of the school system that homeschooled families put into it, where would the schools be then??  One other person commented that homeschooling would be able to do a lot.  How is it “fair” that we pay taxes but do not get to use the facilities? 

I do not even know where to begin with Mr. Marshall implying that homeschooled students do not have to meet the same academic requirements as public school students and that homeschooled students are not achieving the same standards as public school students?  Mr. Marshall…have you EVER talked to a homeschooled student or visited a home and seen first hand what goes on???  Have you EVER looked at college entrances or SAT scores of homeschooled students to see how they compare?  Just wondering…

And instead of just shutting the door and making irrelevant arguments, why don’t we all sit down and try to make this work?  Public school students are not better or more entitled than homeschool students and homeschool students are not better or more entitled than public school students.  Is that really what we want to teach our children, segregation?  WHY????

Let’s make this work.  No one is asking for a free ride.  I am sure that there are weekly tests that homeschool students can turn in or something, and I am pretty sure most homeschool students are hard at work by 9:00am.  I am also sure from having been a public school student and a public school teacher, that there are some public school students who are barely making the grade to be eligible to play.

When it comes to the comment that a homeschooler would be taking a spot away from a student in the public school, let’s stop and think about this.  If the homeschooled student was a public school student, the other public school student could still possibly lose their spot.  And again, why are we talking homeschool vs. public school instead of student against student in friendly, healthy competition no matter what school they go to????  It just doesn’t make any sense!

Why do we want to shut the door on any young person who can help our country to be a better place? 

Lastly, Mr. Marshall…I think you owe Delegate Minchew and Delegate Ramadan an apology.  You may not agree with the bill, but how do you have any idea what their motivation was in presenting it?  Did you ask them?  Attacking fellow politicians is one of the problems, and shows lack of respect, with our political system these days.  Not sure that is what we want to teach our children either.

First, are the home schooled athletes going to ask for county buses to pick them up and take them to school for events?  Second, are the home schooled athletes going to the closest school to them. . .the school they would have gone to if they were in public schools?  Or are they going to pick and choose the best schools for football, like Briar Woods or Stone Bridge?  Frankly, if you live close to Park View, then that is the team you play for, etc.  And last, many home schooled students are from Christian families who don’t like what is taught in public schools and frankly, what goes on in locker rooms at public schools gets pretty raunchy.  Are they going to complain about language, lewd jokes, etc.?  Or are they going to bring in the bibles and try to show other kids the “truth”? Just asking.

Where to begin?
First of all I am grateful that I have the choice to educate my children at home.  I only wish my children had the choice to participate in the athletics program that my tax dollars so generously support.  It seems to me all the academic concerns Mr. Marshall put forth are quite irrelevant.  I pay over $6,000 in taxes.  I expect to be able to use the facilities my hard earned money has helped created for ALL of Loudoun County’s students.  That is not to say that some thought is not needed on how to go about this.  But by no means should sports be off limits to homeschool students.  I am disappointed to hear Mr. Marshall’s narrow minded comments that only add to the misleading stereotype that somehow homeschoolers perform in academics at standards inferior to their public school peers.  As stated below, there is plenty of data to show otherwise.

Tom Marshall’s suggestion that homeschoolers are not meeting or exceeding the scholastic rigors set forth in the public schools is the real misguided viewpoint in this debate.  The truth is that many homeschooled students meet or exceed public school academic standards.  In his biased approach on fairness, Mr. Marshall didn’t acknowledge that many families elect to homeschool their children because of various degrees of unfairness occurring in the Loudoun County Public Schools—with many of those issues originating or continuing under Tom Marshall’s leadership.  It’s about time to allow every child of tax-paying Loudoun County citizens equal opportunity to participate in sports at the schools their tax dollars fund.  Voters ousted Mr. Marshall from the school board because he doesn’t listen to citizens and respect the principle of government “by the people, for the people.”  At least his true colors are still shining through.  And, THANK YOU, Bill Fox for stepping up to this position!

Tom Marshall’s suggestion that homeschoolers are not meeting or exceeding the scholastic rigors set forth in the public schools is the real misguided viewpoint in this debate.  The truth is that many homeschooled students meet or exceed public school academic standards.  In his biased approach on fairness, Mr. Marshall didn’t acknowledge that many families elect to homeschool their children because of various degrees of unfairness occurring in the Loudoun County Public Schools—with many of those issues originating or continuing under Tom Marshall’s leadership.  It’s about time to allow every child of tax-paying Loudoun County citizens equal opportunity to participate in the school-based sports funded by their tax dollars.  Voters ousted Mr. Marshall from the school board because he doesn’t listen to citizens and respect the principle of government “by the people, for the people.”  At least his true colors are still shining through.

I love the irony of Marshall’s statement, “...allow homeschool students, not attending one of our 12 high schools to take a position on a school team away from a public school student…”

That’s right, Tom Marshall is afraid of public school athletes having to COMPETE.

Homeschooled students must meet testing requirements each year.  Assuming that they have no academic criteria to meet is ignorant on your part. 

To a VERY large extent, high school athletic teams represent their towns and communities as much as they do their own school.  Homeschoolers are part of those communities and should be equally able to try out and participate in a thee teams.

Healthy competition is a good thing.  Allot homeschoolers the opportunity to participate in sports only raises the bar.  As Americans we should be fear ‘the best’ - we were once upon a time built on it.

Let the homschoolers play too!  Stop ostracizing them!  The laws, especially in London county have been vindictive toward homeschoolers.

Are home schooled students not full time students because they are educated at home? What preposterous comments by part of former Leesburg Representative Marshall!

What academic requirement could home schooled students not meet? How about a test to ‘prove’ the point (again)?

This discriminating bias against home schooled athletes not being allowed to participate in a local school’s sport is not only outdated, but baseless.

Give home schooling families their taxes back which are used for financing public schools. Consequently, they will not only have the finances to organize their own high school sports, but will excel in these as well, equal but not limited to academic comparisons.

Home schooling has graduated - with honors! It is high noon for the public school athletic programs to open their doors to home schooled athletes. Their schools will be all the better for it, not worse. Any hesitance to allow home schooled athletes access to high school sports in the name of unfairness against public school students is publicly funded socialism not opportunity and competition.

“Former” Leesburg Representative for a reason.