This week, the Virginia House of Delegates passed a "Tebow bill" allowing home-schooled children to participate in sports and other activities at public schools. For the Republican presidential candidates, the Tebow bill is a two-fer that lets them score points with evangelical voters while riding the wave of the religious right's biggest cultural icon in years. But for American taxpayers, the deal is no bargain. After all, while thousands of home-schooled children would get on the playing field at public expense, the GOP presidential field want to give their parents a tax-credit for taking their kids out of public schools.
To be sure, the Republican effort to subsidize home schooling is just one front in the larger effort against what Rick Santorum branded "government-run schools" designed to "indoctrinate" America's children. Like Michele Bachmann, Santorum home-schooled his children. And as Mother Jones reported in July, Bachmann and fellow GOP White House hopeful Ron Paul have been at the forefront in seeking to redirect public education dollars into private pockets:

In particular, Bachmann has earned the praise of the HSLDA [Home School Legal Defense Association] for her support of the Family Education Freedom Act. That bill, which has been introduced off and on in Congress since 1998, would create a tax credit for parents who home-school their children "for qualified educational expenses from a qualified education institution." A voucher, in other words. Under the bill, first championed by Paul, parents would be eligible for up to $5,000 per child.

Desperate to win over skeptical religious right voters, Mitt Romney also has supported federal tax breaks for the parents of the nation's 1.5 to 2 million home-schooled children. In 2007, Romney used the backdrop of a children's museum to declare that American parents should not only be encouraged to abandon the public schools; they should be rewarded for it:

"I also believe parents who are teaching their kids at home, homeschoolers, deserve a break, and I've asked for a tax credit to help parents in their homes with the cost of being an at-home teacher."

Newt Gingrich has his own vision for undermining America's public schools:

I have long been a vocal proponent of a "Pell Grant-style system for Kindergarten through 12th Grade." Per-pupil school district funding could go into each child's backpack, and follow them to the school their parents wish to attend. Parents who home school their children should receive a tax credit or be allowed to keep the Pell Grant.

Now, as the Washington Post and the New York Times recently documented lawmakers in Virginia and other states want to let parents who withdraw their children from the community have it both ways. As the Post reported, Governor Bob McDonnell said he would sign the bill named after Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, who was home-schooled in Florida but was allowed to play football at his local high school:

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R), has said he will sign the bill. "Home-school parents pay taxes like everybody else," he said recently. "It's just fair"... Del. Robert B. Bell (R-Charlottesville), who introduced the bill, said the children just want a chance to compete, which they do not have now. "It's not harder for them. It's impossible for them."

But as the Times explained, critics point to host of problems with the laws already on the books in 25 states:

Opponents of the bill argue that playing varsity sports is a privilege surrendered when students opt out of the public school system; that home-schoolers might take roster spots from public school students; and that it would be extremely difficult to apply the same academic, attendance and discipline requirements to home-schooled students as to those who are monitored daily in public schools.
To maintain varsity eligibility, for instance, Virginia's public school students must take five courses in the current semester and must have passed five in the previous semester. Home-schooled students do not have to adhere to that standard.

Thus far, the Republican White House hopefuls have yet to weigh in on the Tebow bill. (They have, of course, weighed in on Tebow himself, with Rick Perry and Rick Santorum claiming to be the Tim Tebow of the GOP field.) But with their universal support for charters schools, school vouchers and tax credits for home schoolers, there is little doubt that Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul would get down on one knee to win conservative votes. And to do it, they would sack the public school system they denounce as a "propaganda machine."