| If more money meant better education for our kids, our | | | | the 75th to 85th percentile range, compared with the |
| public schools should have vastly improved over the | | | | 50th percentile national average for public-school |
| last 75 years. Yet the reverse is true. In dollars | | | | students across the country. The study found that in |
| adjusted for inflation, public schools spent about $876 | | | | every subject and grade level of the ITBS battery of |
| per year for elementary and secondary school | | | | tests, home-schooled students scored significantly |
| students in 1930, when student literacy rates were | | | | higher than public and private school students. On |
| close to 90 percent. In contrast, in 2003 public schools | | | | average, homeschool students in the first to fourth |
| spent about $7500 per student, while literacy rates fell | | | | grades performed one grade level higher than |
| to the 50-70 percent level in many public schools. In the | | | | comparable public and private school students. By the |
| year 2000, the five states whose students got the | | | | fifth grade, the gap began to widen, and by the eighth |
| highest SAT scores were North Dakota, Iowa, | | | | grade, the average home-schooled student performed |
| Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Yet, per-pupil | | | | four grade levels above the national average. |
| spending in North Dakota ranked forty-first among the | | | | Home-schooling parents not only give their kids a |
| states, in Iowa twenty-fifth, Wisconsin tenth, Minnesota | | | | superior education, but spend far less than public |
| sixteenth, and South Dakota a lowly forty-eighth. In | | | | schools. For example, some excellent phonics reading |
| contrast, the District of Columbia had the fourth highest | | | | programs cost less than $150. Even if we assumed |
| per-student spending of all the states but ranked | | | | that an average homeschooling parent spent about |
| almost at the bottom of the list (50th out of 50 states | | | | $1500 a year on learn-to-read or learn-math books, |
| and the District of Columbia) in student achievement. | | | | computer learning software, and other learning |
| Clearly, there is little correlation between money spent | | | | materials, that is about one-quarter the average |
| per student and student achievement. A 1990 Rand | | | | $7500-a-year that public schools spend per student. |
| Corporation study showed that private Catholic | | | | Clearly, once again, it is obvious that more money for |
| schools do a better job educating children than public | | | | public schools does not guarantee a better education |
| schools. The study compared thirteen New York City | | | | for our kids. For over 40 years they have been trying |
| public, private, and Catholic high schools that had many | | | | to "fix" the public schools. That's long enough. I think |
| minority students. Yet, the average annual tuition costs | | | | that after 40 years we can safely conclude that the |
| for Catholic and Protestant-affiliated schools for the | | | | government bureaucrats who run these schools are |
| 2002-2003 school year were approximately | | | | not up to the task of giving our kids the great |
| $3500-$4000 per elementary-school pupil and | | | | education they deserve. Public schools are beyond |
| $5500-$6000 per Secondary school pupil. The | | | | repair and can not be fixed, ever, simply because they |
| average public-school cost per pupil was | | | | are a government owned-and-operated coercive |
| approximately $7500. Catholic and Protestant-affiliated | | | | monopoly that strangles a free market in education |
| schools therefore give their students a better | | | | and parental choice. Throwing more hundreds of billions |
| education for less money than public schools spend. | | | | of tax dollars at these schools is a complete waste of |
| When we compare the academic record of | | | | time and a criminal waste of precious resources, |
| home-schooled vs. public-school students, the cost vs. | | | | including our children's minds and future. It's time we |
| achievement differences are even more startling. In | | | | scrapped the public-school system. Let's just bury this |
| 1998, the Home School Legal Defense Association | | | | education dinosaur, once and for all. Once public |
| commissioned Larry Rudner, statistician and | | | | schools were scrapped, we can then give parents |
| measurement expert at the University of Maryland, to | | | | back the thousands of dollars a year they now pay |
| do a study on the academic achievement levels of | | | | for school taxes or income taxes that propped up the |
| home-schooled students. The study tested 20,000 | | | | public schools. With these tax refunds, parents can |
| home-schooled students on the Iowa Test of Basic | | | | then pay for their own children's education in a fiercely |
| Skills (ITBS). The study found that home-schooled | | | | competitive education free market in which the quality |
| students did extremely well on the test compared to | | | | of education for our kids keeps getting better, while |
| public school students. Home-schooled kids scored in | | | | tuition costs go down. |