Our good friends at mises have opened my eyes to how we're doing just fine in this pandemic with public schools shut down and this is a sign that we ought to shut them down permanently and look to homeschooling as the best means to educate children instead of robbing others at gun point to prop the public school industrial complex. Where do our resident pardians stand on this matter?

https://mises.org/wire/thanks-shutdowns-many-will-learn-public-schooling-isnt-all-essential-after-all
American homeschooling has increased considerably in the last two decades despite the government barriers in place and the social pressure that naysayers exert to make sure America’s youth don’t veer away from the government schooling conveyor belt. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of homeschooled students doubled from 850,000 in 1999 to 1,800,000 in 2012. Such numbers will likely grow as more families begin experimenting with education at home.

I tip my hat to the homeschoolers. They’re the ones who are engaging in revolutionary acts by categorically rejecting the public school industrial complex. Hopefully, more Americans learn about the benefits of homeschooling while government shutdowns continue and millions of Americans are kept under house arrest. As for Bartholet, she can continue decrying homeschooling all she wants. The good news is that markets don’t care about the opinions of ivory-tower elites. Regular people are the ones in charge, and they determine how services will be provided. As long as Bartholet’s idea of homeschooling prohibition does not become a political reality, she can continue yammering on about the supposed authoritarianism of homeschooling in the confines of her Ivy League pedestal for all I care.

Millions of homeschoolers and other Americans who opt for nonstate education programs will go on with their lives without having to worry about what some Harvard elite has to say about their educational choices. Once the pandemic subsides, we should start focusing more of our time on a different public health problem. That is government schooling. I’ll gladly support a permanent lockdown of government schools; that way, we can prevent the statist mind virus from spreading even further.

nice try, betsy.

the american public school system is a terrible mess, but the average parent is even worse. i'd much rather my kid get taught strange methodology math and even trans rights in kindergarden than have the average American teach my kid.

i'm lucky tho, my wife is a brilliant special education teacher with a regular ed double major who's more than equipped to teach our child until middle school in the home to make up for the ineptitudes of her colleagues.

This post was edited by thesnipa on May 19 2020 01:56pm

American schools fail children in many ways, but its still the best choice for poor families.

Getting the divorce rate down and stopping the welfare state would be more effective than switching to homeschooling for most.

I'm going to need some convincing to make me believe that homeschooling isn't going to create socially stunted helicopter-parented kids.

"All teachers suck except my wife."

Lol is she watching? Blink twice.




Or home schooled kids. They are already a little different. You can meet people and tell if they're home schooled usually if you know what i mean.

This post was edited by Skinned on May 19 2020 02:05pm

there are some good ones, but i'd say the spectrum generally falls on about 30% bad, 40% mediocre, 30% good. and a 70% chance my kid gets a mediocre or worse teacher is pretty sad. but teacher skill is only one aspect of why public schooling is so bad, and its minor compared to a lot of other issues.

she's not watching tho

Another aspect to keep in mind: in public schools, kids meet a lot of different teachers, and chances are that at least some of them will be good, role-models and/or inspiring. A home-schooled kid whose parents happen to be bad teachers/role-models/uninspiring would be deprived of his chance at positive influence. By contrast, even if a majority of teachers suck, regular schoolkids still have a good chance to find such a positive influence at their school.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on May 19 2020 02:58pm

removing public schools if you want your country to die faster.