The movement to allow greater access to educational alternatives and programs, by expanding charter schools, providing tax credits for educational expenses, and giving homeschooled students more opportunities to participate in public school sports did not advance this year.

However, says House Republican Leader Paul “Skip” Stam, R-Wake, for the first time in many years, some of these proposals made it out of committee, and one had an up or down vote on the House floor. It’s a small step for a big concept, but it’s a start.

Public school sports

One of the more dramatic proposals was House Bill 1116, “Home Schoolers Participate in School Sports.” HB 1116 would have opened public school athletics to homeschooled students, though final decisions on access would be left with the local principals.

The N.C. High School Athletic Association currently bars students from playing on the teams of any school but their own. Both private- and homeschooled students are shut out of public school programs, which has led them to develop leagues for nonpublic school students.

Even so, nonpublic school sports are less available in rural than in urban and suburban areas, and the collegiate success of Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, a graduate of homeschooling in Florida, has continued to stoke interest in several states.

The NCHSAA has long opposed any broadening of eligibility in this way, partly to prevent sports recruiting across school district lines, but also because of the documentation load that would inevitably result. NCHSAA officials told Carolina Journal this summer that the constant checking and reporting of students’ academic status and eligibility is a burden even when the students’ records are filed in the same district with their team. Accessing records from other districts, private schools, or from homeschooling parents, they said, would further complicate a thankless task for athletic directors.

The bill narrowly lost in the House Education Committee, 16-17, with 23 members absent. Both Republican and Democratic representatives sponsored the bill, but members of both parties also voted to defeat it.

More charters in the future

House Bill 486, “Modify Charter School Law,” was sponsored almost entirely by Democrats, including Reps. Marvin Lucas, D-Cumberland, Larry Bell, D-Sampson, and Douglas Yongue, D-Scotland; Republican Laura Wiley, R-Guilford, also joined the proposal. This bill would have raised the state’s cap on the number of charter schools from 100 to 106. It passed the House May 13 with 102 in favor and only 6 opposed. The bill was never considered by the Senate, so it died this session.

There are deeper undertones in this issue, though. The federal stimulus package includes a $4 billion “Race to the Top” initiative led by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama; they have indicated that states imposing barriers against the expansion of charter schools may find money from the program delayed or withheld. Gov. Beverly Perdue has criticized the federal guidelines.

Credit for their choice

Two other bills sought to give tax credits to families whose educational choices saved fellow taxpayers money. House Bill 687, “Tax Credits for Children with Disabilities,” sponsored by Reps. Stam, Riley, and Shirley Randleman, R-Wilkes, would have given a credit of up to $3,000 per semester, or $6,000 per year, to families whose special needs children were taken out of the public school system and educated at home or in private school.

To be eligible, a student must have spent at least two semesters in the public schools and been diagnosed with a learning disability. A student who had always been homeschooled or attended a private school would not qualify.

The analysis from the legislature’s Fiscal Research Division said nearly 180,000 North Carolina students have diagnosable learning disabilities, and even discounting the startup costs of the first year of the program, taxpayers could potentially save as much as $5 million annually at the state level with similar savings possible for local school districts. Even so, the House Education Committee divided along party lines and defeated the bill 21-26.

Finally, Stam, along with Reps. Danny McComas, R-New Hanover, Ric Killian, R-Mecklenburg, and Jeff Barnhart, R-Cabarrus, introduced a bill to bring “Tax Fairness in Education.” House Bill 335 would have provided a tax credit of $1,250 per semester and $2,500 per year to families who withdrew their children from public schools in favor of a private option; like HB 687, students now homeschooled or enrolled in private schools could not take part. The official estimate found that state and local governments could save as much as $60 million annually after the program started, but again, the measure failed in the education committee on a party-line vote, 13 Republicans in favor and 16 Democrats opposed.

Stam said these bills should return to the legislative calendar soon. Although the sports access and charter cap bills are likely gone for the remainder of the 2009-10 session, the tax credit bills — both of which have been introduced before — are revenue-related and may be reintroduced in next year’s short session.

Hal Young is a contributor to Carolina Journal.