(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s governor has signed legislation that says Iowa’s public school districts must let local private school students join the district’s sports teams if the private school isn’t offering the sport. Representative Henry Stone, a Republican from Forest City, is a former football coach at Waldorf University. During House debate on the bill, Stone said kids should be allowed to compete in sports, whether they’re enrolled in a public or a private school.

E-S-As are state-funded Education Savings Accounts to cover private school expenses. According to Representative Stone, the Clear Lake and Garner School Districts are no longer allowing students from the private Clear Lake Classical school to play sports.

Stone said “…What we’re talking about today are issues that are affecting our kids and affecting our grandkids. My two grandsons live in the Garner School District. In my opinion, we need to push past our differences and squabbles as adults and not take those differences out on our kids.” The bill passed the House and Senate with the support of Republicans. Democrats opposed it. Representative Heather Matson, a Democrat from Ankeny, said public school officials should be able to make local decisions based on serving students from families who’ve chosen to send their child to the public school.

The bill applies to middle school as well as high school students and Matson suggests that could be a problem in larger schools.

The new mandate in the bill also applies to other extracurricular activities like band and drama. For many years, Iowa students who are home schooled have been participating in extracurricular activities in the local public school.