Are you talking about vouchers? If so, then sign me up. Homeschooling doesn’t seem to work for a majority of parents, but a free-market delivery of educational services (as you seem to suggest when you say, “Maybe teachers should be able to set a price for their services like doctors do”) would probably be a good step in improving education outside of homeschooling spheress. However, that’s an entirely different topic, and I suspect you didn’t really mean it to begin with.

But about parents spending on education what they do on healthcare: parents sending their children even to low-priced private schools could easily do just that. A healthy family of four could spend north of $800/mo on private medical insurance, and would also spend about that much on private school tuition for both kids ($5000/year/student). I’ll let you dredge up exact figures if you’re interested, but these are clearly in the ballpark. And don’t school districts in most states end up receiving more than $5000 per student per year? Again, I’ll let you Google it.

Tim

Thanks for your constructive and well-rendered input. I confess that you might have had a point if homeschooling didn’t, in fact, seem to work pretty well in educating children. Many homeschooling parents judge themselves to be unqualified to teach more specialized high school-level material, which is why homeschooling is less common at that age, but even then success is not rare. And at the earlier ages especially, the real state of affairs must be different than what you see. Perhaps the analogy to medicine is not such a good one. That might explain the pay differential between teachers and doctors–if, of course, it isn’t just due to more bourgeois expropriation of capital. Which I totally bet it is.

I would address the tired old canard about socialization, but I don’t get the idea that you really want to talk about any of this.

Tim

“I find it strange that we send our young men and women to help assure that children can go to school in Afghanistan, yet we allow parents in Michigan to keep their children at home.”

Yes, how hypocritical that we allow American parents to make choices about how their kids will be educated, while at the same time building up a structure so that Afghan parents have more…choices about how to educate their children.

“Remember that the school day is only six hours long, five days a week. That leaves many hours during the week and summer for the parent.”

Funny you should mention that. Presumably, it also leaves many hours during the week for non-parental influences. Interesting how often things work both ways.

“Inveterate statist” sums it up nicely. “Bonehead” works for me, too.

As if her circle of groupies is an accurate, across-the-board assessment of all homeschoolers.

She needs a reality check.

The public school system is failing our youth. Check our students grades in comparison to the rest of your world. We are losing ground fast with the system they have given us.

Thanks, but no thank you… keep your garbage cans to yourself.

Mothers, get a life. How unfair it is for you to take away your own child’s life in order to gratify yours? Is this what we must expect from the “me first” generation as it raises their families?

I’ll bet she didn’t realize the full extent of her “lucid” reasoning.

Her logic is so flawed it’s laughable.