Home-schoolers' end run.

Tim Allwein's column ("Giving Districts Final Say on Home-Schoolers' Play," September 2003) only begins to address the unfortunate role Pennsylvania has given local school districts in determining whether home-schoolers can participate in sports, extracurricular activities, musical ensembles, theater productions and so forth. This stems from the state legislature's enactment of charter school laws in 1997.

The law required that charter school students, including those being home-schooled through cyber-charters, be given the opportunity to participate in all sports and extracurricular activities in the local school district. Our school districts were compelled to pay the cyber-charter schools that enroll local students and to fund their participation in our extracurricular activities. A home-schooler denied access to afterschool activities by a local school board simply enrolled in a cyber-charter to make this end run.

This unfunded state mandate and reduction in local school district authority was eased somewhat with state legislation last year that provided for more district and state oversight of cyber-charter schools. The law did not give cyber-school students the right to participate in extracurriculars. The U.S. District Court, in a lawsuit waged by cyber-school proponents, recently supported this position, stating, "There is no constitutionally protected interest in playing sports."

Perhaps Pennsylvania's state court system will need to address this issue. In the meantime, some Pennsylvania school districts are permitting home-schoolers to participate in sports to avoid having them enroll in cyber schools and to avoid further litigation.

KENNETH G. KOBERLEIN

Superintendent, East Stroudsburg Area School District, East Stroudsburg, Pa.