Are Homeschooled Kids at a Disadvantage?

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We believe the best education comes about when parents are involved in their children's public school education. Involvement should include a direct, hands-on approach with their kids' learning process (helping with homework, volunteering in their classroom), and working for the benefit of the school itself (being an active PTA member, volunteering to help with school board races and school bond measures).

Parental involvement is as necessary for the academic success of the child as it is for the functioning of the broader society.

Compulsory public education has been and remains an important pillar of our democracy. It created a common store of knowledge and provided education for participation in civil society. Without public education our country and its democracy would suffer. Before public schools, few families except for the richest had the resources and ability to provide formal education for their children. Today, thanks to public education, all children have an opportunity to reach their fullest potential.

Much of the rhetoric surrounding education today revolves around the importance of training the future workers of America for employment in a competitive global economy.  This is a worthwhile goal. But it should never be the dominant goal of education. While preparation for work is important, this economic dimension to schooling should not replace or obscure the primary reason for the existence of public education: that everyone-independent of family or social standing-should have the ability to think clearly and critically, and to gain the skills necessary to participate intelligently in our political democracy. It is also important to have a broad range of knowledge.

To some, home schooling is the ultimate parental involvement program. But homeschooling, absent the necessary understanding of how children learn, adequate preparation in subject matter areas for the parent/teacher, and the fertile give and take of cooperative social interaction in the public school environment, can have a negative overall effect on students. Missing such educational factors will often harm a child's long-term prospects of developing the attributes of a citizen in our diverse society.