Home-schoolers and Public School Activites

Children who are homeschooled should be allowed to participate in extra curricular public school activities. Just because parents deiced to home school their children does not mean the children must miss out on all the extras that come to those children who attend public schools. All adults pay taxes for the public school system so all of their children should be allowed to use the facilities and join groups paid for by the same school system. Home schoolers can help benefit the public schools' sports teams by allowing coaches to be able to choose by a larger variety of players. Homeschooled children participating in public school activities would benefit themselves and the public school system.
All parents are known to not have the same beliefs when it comes to parenting and this applies to the way their children get their educations as well. Some adults think sending a child to a public school takes away from that child's learning experience when they could learn have a one on one at home. Others see it as perfectly normal and a good way to start adapting to "real life." Whichever way parents decide to educate their children should not affect children being able to participate in after-school activities in their communities. All children need a place and a group of peers to practice their talents on, whether it is soccer, singing, or debating. These outlets should not be taken away just because the parents, or children as well, would rather them learn at home.
Another reason children should be allowed to participate in such activities is because all of their parents pay taxes for the public schools. This alone should easily allow all children the access to any public school equipment, sports team, or clubs possible. If someone was giving money to help pay for a pool or any other item, they would be given unlimited use to it, but this is not the same for homeschooled children. These kids, who happen to be homeschooled, should not be restricted from things their parents help pay for.
Aside from homeschoolers having a need and right to extra-curricular public school activities, they would also benefit these groups. If a coach at a local high school was choosing his team for the year, he would only have the students from his home school to choose from. If homeschoolers could be involved, though, he would have a number of people from all over the district to choose from, creating the best team possible. There is one limit which would have to be put on though and that would be the homeschoolers participating at the school in with their district so there are no arguments between coaches and other team leaders for certain students. As long as that does not get in the way, homeschoolers should definitely be able to be part of sports teams to benefit themselves and the athletic department they would be participating in.
Some homeschoolers need these extra curricular public school activities to increase their gifts. Others just want to meet people and want to exercise their parent's rights as tax paying citizens. And still others would like the experience of being involved in a sports team and also help the local school's win a few games. Whatever the reason there is no doubt or question about it, Homeschoolers should be allowed to participate in all after-school programs their district's high school offers.