Vote on Tebow bill scheduled
Published 12:21 pm Monday, April 20, 2009
The bill that would allow homeschoolers the opportunity to try out for a public school athletic team or band will be up for vote Wednesday morning in the Alabama Senate Education Committee.
This is the fifth legislative session that Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, has brought the bill before the committee, but the bill has yet to make it to the Senate floor.
“My hope is the committee will see it as a project in process and not the final result and move it out of committee toward the full Senate,” Erwin said. “And in the meantime we’ll continue to work on the issues and concerns.”
On April 1, a public hearing was held on Senate bill 305, nicknamed the Tim Tebow bill. Education Committee Chairwoman Sen. Vivian Flowers called for a summit meeting to discuss the differences on the bill, something Erwin counted as progress.
Erwin represented the bill supporters’ at the 11-person summit in Montgomery April 14. The summit provided public school officials to discuss their issues with the piece of legislation. The major point of discussion was academics, and what was to guarantee a student from quitting school to homeschool in order to make the grade to play.
Erwin said if the bill clears committee, then he will work to resolve the issues before the bill goes before the Senate for debate.
“They wanted to find out some way that they could ensure that the students were meeting those academic requirements,” Erwin said. “I want to try to create a win-win situation for everybody, so that everybody can live with a bill comfortably.”