Concerned Women for America has confirmed that Math Counts, a national math competition for teams and individual students in grades 6-8, will not allow homeschoolers to form teams and compete in the 2010-2011 school year.
-- From "Homeschoolers Count -- National Math Competition Bans Homeschoolers" posted at Christian Newswire 8/17/10
The Math Counts board unanimously decided to exclude homeschoolers in response to a few situations in which "super teams" were formed by pulling certain gifted students from public schools and labeling them as homeschool teams.
Math Counts has provided unique opportunities for gifted students to compete and to shine. The program is comparable to the National Spelling Bee. Winners on a national level are rewarded and meet the president at the White House.
These examples of cheating obviously mar the competition, but homeschoolers as a whole should not be completely wiped from the competition.
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From "MATHCOUNTS Agrees to Meet with HSLDA" by William A. Estrada, Esq., Director of Federal Relations, Home School Legal Defense Association 8/19/10
MATHCOUNTS has agreed to meet with HSLDA to discuss its change in eligibility standards for homeschool teams.
MATHCOUNTS explained to HSLDA that there is no desire to discriminate against homeschoolers, or students from any school, with this new eligibility rule. However, HSLDA believes—based on conversations with homeschool MATHCOUNTS coaches and others—that the new MATHCOUNTS eligibility policy will significantly reduce the number of homeschool students who are able to qualify for the state MATHCOUNTS competitions.
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