Replies

I have nothing against home-schooling, but it is an admission that our actual school system is failing. I don’t see people as “economic units” but I see our success as a society defined significantly by how successful our economy is. Seeing as home-schooling is an economically more inefficient way of getting the job done (just as churning your own butter would be vs. buying it in a store) it is far from an ideal solution.

I believe in school choice and dismantling the government monopoly on education. Just like welfare, a government school should be the option of last resort. If we all were free to use our school taxes to pay to go to any school we wanted to, then a greater variety of schools would be created. I would expect that many people home-schooling would be able to find a school that fit their values and standards better. Of course they could always home-school anyway if they chose to. I’m worried about the people who feel they need to do it because there’s no good alternative, not the people who want to do it.

Seeing as homeschooling is an economically more inefficient way of getting the job done (just as churning your own butter would be vs. buying it in a store) it is far from an ideal solution

Jedi, the point is that the job is not getting done by educators. I home school in order that the job get done, and get done properly. I don't homeschool because I want to, but because it is the only way I can get the job done with the resources God has given me. It is my responsibility to educate my kids, not the government's. It is far less "efficient" in the long run, to produce an uneducated and/or reeducated young adult.

I believe in school choice and dismantling the government monopoly on education. Just like welfare, a government school should be the option of last resort.

Ditto

Seeing as home-schooling is an economically more inefficient way of getting the job done (just as churning your own butter would be vs. buying it in a store) it is far from an ideal solution.

That's a fair point, but ignores the utility that can't be quantified in dollars and cents - that of parental bonding and the competitive diversity that it breeds. Plus, if I had to churn my own butter I'd be able to retire my shake weight :)

Standardization brings efficiency; true. But it also tends to stifle innovation, as most efficient producers and economies of scale drive out competition. School choice and breaking the NEA and teacher unions are essential, but to see that supplemented with millions of home schooled kids raised with strong family bonds would bring long term advantages that we can't even foresee.