John Brummett laments the defeat of the so-called Tim Tebow law, which would allow home-schooled children to compete in athletic, musical and other competitions for regular public schools. He sees it as another case of adults’ interests — school superintendents here — being placed ahead of children.

Brummett’s column cited a couple of reasons for school administrators’ opposition. He didn’t include the argument advanced Friday in committee by Richard Abernathy, leader of the administrators’ group, which flip-flopped against the proposition after initially backing it. It was that — and this is a child-based concern, though how widespread I wouldn’t be prepared to argue — parents would jerk a kid out of school for some dispute or another, make no legitimate stab at home schooling, but seek to enroll the child only in football. Backers of the bill think they more than met that concern with semester testing to demonstrate adequate educational progress.

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