Bust the Public School Monopoly

American Thinker ^ | 5 Nov, 2025 | J.B. Shurk

[MtnClimber]

There are good reasons why homeschooling is on the rise.

I am an enthusiastic supporter of homeschooling. When parents are in a position to prioritize their children’s education, young minds learn more information more quickly. A young person who excels in mathematics, for instance, is not forced to follow the regimented schedule of the state’s curricula, in which geometry belongs to a certain grade level, an introduction to calculus must be kept secret until the final years of high school, and summer vacations interrupt the accumulation and application of new knowledge. Those who show promise in mathematics — especially those who enjoy working with numbers — should not have their educations slowed down merely because a state education board has decided that everyone should learn the same things at the same age.

This is particularly true today because public schools are “dumbing down” lesson plans, eliminating advanced classes for bright students, and replacing academic competition with generic passing grades. A half-century ago, students who failed classes were forced to attend summer school or repeat the same grade level in September. Now everybody passes, and in certain Democrat-controlled cities, it has become entirely too common for entire “graduating” classes to be incapable of demonstrating proficiency in concepts that should have been mastered years earlier. In some Democrat-controlled school districts, sizable percentages of “graduating” high school seniors read at an elementary school level.

Such failures should shock people. What is the point of putting a young person in a classroom for twelve or more years if nothing is learned? If teachers’ unions and school superintendents believed that their primary responsibility is to educate young minds, then they would hang their heads in shame and desperately seek solutions. But it seems clear that modern-day school administrators have no interest in helping the youngest

---

TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: intercession; leftism

[1Old Pro]

The GOP wonders why they lose elections and the youth vote is 90% Democrat. It’s because the GOP has failed to reform K-12 and the teachers teach kids to become Democrats - perhaps the biggest GOP fail over the decades.

[arthurus]

My youngest daughter homeschools her three boys ages 6 to 13. They have never blessed a public school with their presence. The 12yo is a typical teenager at home in that he is on the phone all a lot but the people on the other end is an aeronautical engineer who has taken an interest in the boy and is mentoring him. The boy's father took him to a meetup of engineers in DC a couple of months ago where several engaged him in discussions of calculus and design. For his last birthday one of these fellows gave him a 600 page textbook on drawing and design. He has made himself easily conversant with it and demonstrates some of it to the kids in Sunday school with him.
The 10yo plays violin and is working out on trumpet. The 6yo draws and draws and his aunts and uncles supply him with rolls of shelving paper which he fills up with ever improving drawings. . At 5 he was making detailed drawings of power tools and trucks with stick figure people. It is the tools and trucks that interest him. He has taught himself to read by emulating his brothers.
The older two at least, would be totally bored in public school and probably labeled ADHD or worse and drugged into quiet submission. All three would be diagnosed as hyperactive,

[goodnesswins]

Yesterday we visited Kootenai Classical Academy, one of Hillsdales sponsored/supported K-12 schools. WHAT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR! They are expanding throughout the nation. If you find one in your state, SUPPORT THEM!

[sueuprising]

Perhaps what I am going to say sounds harsh, but the erosion of education in the public school rests simply upon the catering to minorities who show less academic promise. In order to show that schools are progressing, they have to make the work easier for academic impoverishment to appear as if it is conversely , successful.

[Srednik]

Mrs Srednik (teacher) and Srednik (principal) home educated six.

Results?

Four bachelors degrees. Three masters degrees. Six well-read, well-informed, thoughtful citizen-adults.

Srednik only wishes his mother had schooled him at home.

[ProgressingAmerica]

This is only awaiting President Trump’s final act.

Trump must ask Congress for legislation to abolish the U.S. Department of Education.

He has not done so yet. I do not understand what he is waiting for.

[Reily]

Sad thing is under the segregated school system black performance was far better and on par with other lower economic minority groups*. Read Thomas Sowell’s books!

* In Sowell’s time
1. Black single parent households was 22%,
2. Classroom discipline was enforced. Black schools were more hard core about discipline then white schools.

[rellic]

I didn’t want to give my life history, But My university required at least a Grade of “B” in every class of your major. I got a C+ in Linear Algebra, I had to settle for a BS in Computer science.
From what I understand you and I made more money designing systems (I was mainly employed as an electronics engineer) than most math majors.

[Tired of Taxes]

Republicans had the perfect opportunity to “bust the public school monopoly” in 2020.

Instead, when the schools shut down, Republicans screamed to reopen them.

So, the GOP is to blame as much as the Dems for the public school monopoly.

Public schools know they can teach the kids anything they want. Parents may complain, but the vast majority will never pull their kids out.