Homeschool athletes await Missouri governor's decision on access to public school sports

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Sen. Ben Brown, a Republican from Washington, speaks on the first day of the 2024 Legislative Session. For the past three years, Brown has filed legislation to help homeschoolers gain access to public school activities. This year, the legislature gave its approval (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
A decade of work by lawmakers and activists culminated earlier this month with the legislature sending a bill to Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe expanding extracurricular opportunities for homeschool students.
The legislation, which has been filed every year in Missouri since 2014, will require public schools to allow homeschooled students in the area to try out for sports teams and other activities beginning in August.
Throughout much of the bill's history, it couldn't even get a committee hearing. By 2023, the proposal managed to barely pass a Senate committee in a 5-4 vote, with three Democrats and one Republican opposed.
Things changed in February, when it cleared the Senate unanimously — a rarity for the chamber. But then the House made changes to the bill, like prohibiting background checks of homeschooling families that receive money through a private school tax credit program.
That change drew the ire of some senators and put the bill's chances in jeopardy. But ultimately, the two chambers worked out a compromise and only three senators ended up voting no.
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The legislation has had 10 sponsors over the years. Each points to different reasons the bill finally made it to the governor's desk this legislative session, such as unrelenting dedication from homeschooling families and the fervor of this year's sponsor, state Sen. Ben Brown.
Brown, a Republican from Washington, told The Independent that 'the stars were aligned' for the bill to pass this year.
'It took a tremendous amount of work, both in the legislature with support from leadership and from the grassroots support,' he said. 'Those were all key factors that just culminated and finally, after more than a decade, ensured that these kids get these opportunities.'
State Rep. Josh Hurlbert, a Smithville Republican who sponsored the legislation from 2021 to 2024, gave kudos to homeschooling families that came to Jefferson City to support the legislation.
'Legislators come and go,' he said. 'But it is the families that have been the constant and saw it through.'
Hurlbert was a homeschooled student who played soccer in a league of students like him. He sponsored the bill thinking of students in rural areas who don't have access to homeschool leagues, and his young, home-educated children who play in recreational teams with kids educated both in and outside the public school system.
His bill passed committee in 2021 and 2022 after families with home-educated children came to testify in favor of the legislation. Some families who submitted testimony in 2021 returned to push for the bill this year.
'We have had so many homeschool families and kids come over through the years to testify and tell their side of the story,' Hurlbert said. 'They really made an impact.'
The bill's journey in Missouri began in 2014, when it was first introduced by then-state Rep. Eiljah Haahr.
Haahr, a Springfield Republican and homeschool student who went on to become speaker of the Missouri House, participated in a homeschool sports league as a student.
'When I got in the legislature, I was like, 'I don't want kids to be the same way as me, where they want to participate in sports and they don't have an opportunity to do so,'' he told The Independent.
The greatest opposition in 2014 came from the Missouri State High School Activities Association, or MSHSAA, which regulates extracurricular activities and sports in public schools.
Former state Rep. Kirk Mathews, a Republican from Pacific, picked up the bill after Haahr in 2016. It was not heard in committee that year, and Mathews told The Independent that MSHSAA was a big reason.
'(MSHSAA) had enough influence with leadership to have a bill not get advanced through the process,' he said.
The legislation continued to languish in 2017, sponsored by former state Rep. Don Rone, a Portageville Republican. He told The Independent that leadership continued to overlook the bill.
'We had some problems back then,' he said, 'and (the bill) just didn't get put on the front burners.'
New leadership in both chambers this year showed support for the bill that Brown 'had never seen before.'
Senate President Cindy O'Laughlin, a Republican from Shelbina, sponsored the bill in 2022. And current leaders in the House told Brown they liked the legislation, a departure from the resistance he said he faced from the House's former speaker, Dean Plocher.
Prior to Plocher's term as speaker, the bill largely moved only in the House. But the Senate version has seen the most activity in the past two years.
'The narrative had kind of flipped over the years,' Hurlbert said. 'The past couple of years, the hardest part was the House.'
Other things have changed as well. State lawmakers have been increasingly interested in alternatives to public education, passing and expanding a tax-credit scholarship system benefiting private schools.
'The entire climate towards public education has changed in Missouri over the last couple of years,' Mathews said. 'With school choice being looked upon more favorably.'
MSHSAA has been largely quiet about the legislation, saying it would cause 'substantial changes' in a press release but omitting details.
The legislation awaits Kehoe's decision on whether to sign it or veto it. If he doesn't take action by July 15, the bill is automatically approved.
'We had days where 50 people showed up from different homeschool families around the state of Missouri,' Brown said. 'To be able to get this done for them, it was probably the most rewarding moment that I've had in my time (in the Senate).'
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