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