Tim Tebow has been in the news for speaking at controversial churches and about his possible trade from the New York Jets, but he also had made headlines for other reasons, as his name has been used as a nickname for a bill being considered in Alabama.
According to AL.com in Alabama, a bill sponsored by Sen. Shadrack McGill, R-Macedona, SB 186, which would be called the Tim Tebow Act, has been approved by the Senate Education Committee, clearing one hurdle that the legislation has before it can become law. The act would allow home-schooled students across the state to participate in public-school athletics and is named for Tebow because he was in that situation in high school.
Tebow was home-schooled as a child in Florida and was allowed to play high school football at his public school, where he led the team to a championship in the state before going to play at Florida for Urban Meyer. Tebow won a Heisman trophy while playing for the Gators and led the team to a championship.
McGill has sponsored similar legislation in the past, but the proposals died out in the government process. The new bill would allow the home-schooled students in athletics only and no other extracurricular activities like clubs and other organizations.
"This bill has been deliberated for years now, and I've whittled it down for years now," McGill said to AL.com
The committee was one of the first hurdles for the legislation and it passed by a vote of 3-2 with support from McGill and Sens. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, and Bill Holtzclaw, R-Madison, while Committee Chairman Dick Brewbaker, R-Pike Road, and Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Daphne, abstained from voting on it.
The report also says that the committee approved an amendment to the bill that allows local superintendents to review the academic proficiency of home-schooled students to ensure that they are in compliance with school guidelines.
The bill is not a sure thing yet though, as it still has opponents in Senate Minority Leader Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, who voted against the legislation, as well as the Alabama High School Athletic Association, which sees it as an impediment to sports in the community.
"If the public school system is not good enough for your children or home-school children to go to on a full-time basis and have the whole experience, why is it good enough for extracurricular programs?" Figures said.
The reason for the opposition by Figures is due to the fact that she feels if the home-schooled students play, it would be a disadvantage to the public school students, since they could have more practice time.
"They've had plenty of time to come to me, and I've had no one come to me really for the last three years," McGill said. "I don't have much confidence in that happening in the future."
