Finding Ways to Mess With Homeschoolers

From azcentral.com:

The young chess players were the first such champions in Arizona.

But a team of homeschool students from the southeast Valley, called the Chevalier Noir (Black Knight) Academy, was shut out last weekend from competing, not allowed to defend its title in the Arizona Scholastic Chess Championship held in Tucson.

State chess officials allowed the homeschool students to play as teams for two years because of changing or unclear national rules on the subject, but this year, they ruled team members must come from the same school.The young chess players were the first such champions in Arizona.

But a team of homeschool students from the southeast Valley, called the Chevalier Noir (Black Knight) Academy, was shut out last weekend from competing, not allowed to defend its title in the Arizona Scholastic Chess Championship held in Tucson.

State chess officials allowed the homeschool students to play as teams for two years because of changing or unclear national rules on the subject, but this year, they ruled team members must come from the same school.

So what's the big reason this chess team of homeschoolers can't compete?

"The tournaments were created and designed for school teams," said Will Wharton, president of the Arizona Chess Federation board. "The problem is their connection is just chess, they're not doing any schooling together."

Oh, now I get it. "Schooling together" does so many things for students; I just can't think of any. Besides, it takes a lot of teamwork to play chess...well, the school implies that it does, so they must know what they're talking about. :-)

This is clearly a move to punish homeschoolers for not worshipping at the holy temple of secular public education.