Should homeschool kids be allowed to play school sports?

Actually it is. But settle down a little bit.

 

So do I.

 

The school keeps an empty seat available, or room in the school, for your child the second you want it. That costs money.

Have you ever heard of a home schooled student deciding to go to the public school and the school telling them that they are full and wait until a spot opens up in classroom?

 

It really doesn't ...

Schools do not maintain buffer capacity to ensure that there's enough space for anyone who might want a seat.

And at a given enrollment the cost to the school of an additional student (i.e., the marginal cost of a student) is virtually zero.

 

There is about a 1 on 20 or 1 in 25 chance that a new student enrolling over the summer will force a school division to add a teacher or a class to a school. That one teacher costs about $60,000 when you consider benefits. So you could say that 24 students are free and one costs $60,000 or you could think that the child costs about $3,000 or $2,500 when they show up at the door.

And we are not considering any type of special education needs the student might have.

 

Ah, special education: another offering of the public school system to which the private/charter school moochers demand access.

Then of course they act stunned and outraged when they find out programs have been cut due to funding losses.

When you spend years trying to "starve the beast," don't bitch when the beast starts looking sickly and underfed.

 

You've moved the goalposts a bit ... you started by saying that schools have to be ready to accommodate extra enrollment on (essentially) a moment's notice. Now you're simply saying that a student who pushes enrollment beyond some critical ratio imposes a step cost equal to the marginal cost of an additional teacher. Either way, however, that's not the way it works. Say a school has 5 classrooms available for the 3rd grade. Here in Texas there is a mandated 22:1 ratio at the K-4 level. Now, suppose our school was planning on 109 3rd-grade students. Now here pop up two new students, pushing the enrollment over the magic number. That district does not have to immediately hire up to maintain a 22:1 ratio. Waivers are routinely granted for unplanned enrollment (there are limits, of course; a district can only go to the unplanned enrollment two consecutive semesters) and similar challenges.

It's just nigh on impossible to make the case that home-schooling kids "costs" districts/states money. The few studies I've read suggest that home-schooling actually enhances states' bottom lines.

 

Do you agree there has to be a point where a division has to say, "well, fuck, we need another teacher at this school...?" You do understand this happens, and we count students in integers of one. So one student will push a division to add a teacher.

Now, is it less cost to the taxpayer to have a family home school? Yes it is. Is it free? No way. Home schooled students wanting to play sports sort of shoots that down, and you would be surprised how many show up for different forms of special education each day. So they should pay taxes just like everyone else.

 

So much conversation about what's "fair" to the school, not enough about what's best for society.

 

It matters in society whether a kid poaches a spot on the basketball team?

 

Extracurriculars have educational value, participation in them improves children's education. That's why they exist.

 

Ah, OK, I see where you're going. They are open to everybody who wants to be part of them. I guess a small small percentage of people don't want to meet the minimum standard to get in that group.