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