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Posted on 05/08/2026 5:46:15 AM PDT by Twotone
Activists who demand strict oversight for homeschooling rarely apply the same standards to public schools, entrepreneur and defense contractor Palmer Luckey argued this week.
Luckey pushed back against growing calls for tighter regulation of homeschooling, responding to critics who say parents should face more evaluations and state monitoring.
Home invasion
His comments came after writer Jill Filipovic argued that homeschooling families should accept more scrutiny if they believe homeschooling delivers better educational outcomes.
“If homeschooling is actually super high quality, then homeschooling families should not object to being evaluated, tested, and checked-in-on to make sure their kids are actually learning,” Filipovic wrote in a post viewed more than one million times.
Luckey responded that homeschool students often succeed precisely because they are not forced into what he described as the “slow-progress-across-all-subjects method public schools impose on every student, no matter how they learn.”
He added that standardized oversight would likely undermine the flexibility that makes homeschooling effective in the first place
“The evaluation/testing you are talking about would almost certainly prohibit that sort of tailored education,” Luckey wrote, “especially since they would be designed and administered by a system that wants to eliminate homeschooling in almost all cases.”
Several studies appear to support at least part of Luckey’s argument.
Study haul
A 2022 study analyzing results from the Classic Learning Test — a college entrance exam launched in 2015 — found homeschool students outperformed peers from other school systems by margins ranging from three to 12.1 points, including in verbal and writing categories.
A 2025 study by Cardus found that 45% of short-term homeschoolers earned at least a bachelor’s degree, roughly comparable to the 46% rate among non-homeschooled students. The same study also found homeschoolers were more likely to be married, have children, volunteer in their communities, and report higher levels of optimism.
Meanwhile, a 2026 overview of peer-reviewed research found that 62% of studies conducted over a 30-year period concluded homeschool students outperformed their traditionally schooled peers.
Rubber rooms
Luckey also rejected the argument that public schools better prepare children for real-world socialization.
“We are putting the vast majority of our children into madhouses that no longer have anything to do with how society works or what they will experience in said society,” he wrote.
Despite the growing body of research and the rapid rise in homeschooling, major media outlets continue to advocate for tighter oversight. The Washington Post reported in 2024 that between 1.9 million and 2.7 million American children were being homeschooled — roughly a 50% increase over six years.
In England, homeschooling numbers rose from fewer than 81,000 students in 2022 to roughly 92,000 in 2023. The Guardian attributed much of the increase to COVID-era lockdowns while simultaneously calling for greater regulation and oversight, arguing public schools provide stronger safeguards for children.
Luckey, however, said critics often apply a double standard — demanding accountability from parents while excusing systemic failures in public education.
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“homeschooling families should not object to being evaluated, tested, and checked-in-on to make sure their kids are actually learning”
Yes, they should. The product of our public schools is, however, indeed atrocious.
Government is not in the position to be checking in on citizens.
What the heck is this notion? This whole mindset is rooted in dictatorship thinking.
Free people check in on government.
Dictatorial government checks in on the people.
Our government mandated primary school about a century ago. This is just a progression of that top-down approach. Doesn’t make it right, but it should hardly be surprising.
American public education has devolved into an indoctrination camp system. It must be destroyed if we are to be a free people.
What a crock. Where does any government official get the authority to determine or monitor homeschooling?
Public schools are a cesspool of lowest common denominator and unions. My kids were homeschooled - with no government supervision - as were my grandkids. All were superior students and successful adults.
I agree, it is not surprising. At least not in the micro.
The problem is the big picture of Americans, a free people, throwing off the notions of freedom and embracing old-world tyranny.
That is really the larger problem here and it has become a systemic societal failure. America by and large no longer embraces God’s gift of liberty - far too many are at their core looking for a way to make government just a little bit bigger so as to enforce their vision on the other guy against their will.
If we were striving to be more like our Founders we would be abolishing agencies left and right to restore individuals’ freedoms. It’s just not common, that is just not where we are at as a people.
School indoctrination is so wildly successful and it is heartbreaking. People only know how to live and act in their default of big government, which the schools placed their in their hearts and in their minds.
My point was that parents should object to that.
My point was that parents should object to that.
Ah - got it. And yes, they certainly should object. Strenuously.
I have never met a public school student who was close to as learned and intelligent as home schooled kids I have met.
That’s like putting a crappy mechanic in charge of doing check ups on your car. Do you really believe that the people you readily admit destroyed our national education system could effectively and in an unbiased manner manage homeschooling like that?
If you do, I’ve got some barely used government school text books to sell you.
Maybe work on your reading comprehension before spouting off on a thread about education.
Defund public schools. Communists have taken it over.
We have to burn the village to save it.
“ “If homeschooling is actually super high quality, then homeschooling families should not object to being evaluated, tested, and checked-in-on to make sure their kids are actually learning,” Filipovic wrote in a post viewed more than one million times”
If it was working without the scrutiny, why hone in trying to destroy it with rules and regulations beyond belief!
“If homeschooling is actually super high quality, then homeschooling families should not object to being evaluated, tested, and checked-in-on to make sure their kids are actually learning,”
Fine, let’s also apply that to the state public school system. You’re going to have to try and do it through Randy “Swinegarten” and her commie friends.
Public schools....where kids learn all about sex, drugs, cusswords, and how to be disrespectful to each other, as well as to adults.
some leftovers:
Checked by who? The public school establishment?
Those are the last people we want reviewing our work.
Ve known literally thousands of homeschoolers. None are losers or degenerates.
I’ve known a couple who are super geniuses. They are rare. Most are completely normal. Zero need government oversight.
The vast majority of homeschoolers have firearms in the building and refuse to participate in gun free school zones. How many homeschools get shot up?
I’ll answer. Zero.
Re-read my post, for God’s sake.
Sorry, I took it as yes the schools should check up on homeschoolers.
Your response could be read both ways.
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