Sen. Gilbert Baker’s SB 842, the Tim Tebow home school bill, was voted down today in the Senate Education Committee.  If you followed our Twitter feed this morning, you probably saw that several senators wanted to review the bill during the interim. After being voted down on a voice-vote, the bill was referred for further study between now and the next legislative session.

The bill received two votes: One from Sen. Kim Hendren and one from Sen. Johnny Key.  Sen. Elliot, along with others on the committee, asked that the bill be sent to an interim study for further review. This means that Senator Baker may be able to bring the bill back up at the legislative session in 2011.

The bill would have allowed home school students to participate in extracurricular activities at their local public school.  Right now home schoolers are not allowed to compete against public school students in athletics, due to AAA regulations. A couple of senators raised concerns that the bill might create disparities between existing AAA policies and the law.

This bill, along Rep. Cook’s bad home school bill, will be weighed by lawmakers during the interim. I doubt that Rep. Cook’s bill will be brought back up in 2011, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Sen. Baker runs his at that time. Several states either currently have or are considering similar Tim Tebow laws, so this issue is not likely to go away.

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