“Students whose families reported spending $600 or more on them annually achieved test scores placing them in the 89th percentile of all students nationally; students from families who reported spending less than $600 annually scored in the 86th percentile. Traditional public schools in New York, where homeschooling is discouraged, spend an average of $21,489 per student only to achieve mediocre outcomes.”
That is just stunning. We waste so much money building schools & educating teachers (who then proceed to be incompetent). A few homeschooling moms around every block, teaching their own & their neighbor’s kids, could produce a much better educated populace.
We homeschool our kids and this is what I hear often from other homeschoolers; how ridiculous it is that schools spend thousands per students and we spend hundreds with better results. True, even with successful public school kids it has more to do with strong families and involved parents than the perfect curriculum and great teachers. However, comparing the cost of homeschool curriculum per student to what schools spend per student is apples and oranges.
The cost per student in a school is not just curriculum plus a teacher’s salary. That cost covers all the expenses of operating a government institution: utilities, property maintenance, support staff, supplies, transportation, athletic facilities etc.
A very expensive institution can’t make up for poor parenting.
This is our seventh year homeschooling and it is the most challenging thing I have ever undertaken. This from someone who has in the (far distant) past worked out or competed to the point of passing out and collapsing. Maybe I have children who are more challenging than others, but there are days I wonder if I should just stick them back in school and have calmer days with just the little ones here. I then remind myself of why we are doing this in the first place and I can carry on. Not sure how many homeschooling moms would commit to volunteering to dedicate 12 years of this to the neighbors’ kids, or if it would even have the same as a mother with her own kids.
Explains the government's demand for all the money going into "education". Its goals are not our goals. Public schools are a success story from the perspective of the state.