I believe a major factor in this phenomenon is the fact that parents who actually care enough to homeschool are intelligent enough to educate their own children. The sad fact of the matter is that so many parents love the schools in that they provide free childcare services for them that they do not give one rat's a$$ how well or poorly their children perform as long as they are out of the parents' hair.
“The sad fact of the matter is that so many parents love the schools in that they provide free childcare services for them...”
It sure as heck ain’t free.
>”We now have a comparison group, for millions of homeschooled children are, on average, putting public school students to shame in academic performance.”<
>>>I believe a major factor in this phenomenon is the fact that parents who actually care enough to homeschool are intelligent enough to educate their own children. The sad fact of the matter is that so many parents love the schools in that they provide free childcare services for them that they do not give one rat’s a$$ how well or poorly their children perform as long as they are out of the parents’ hair.<<<
Again, what evidence is there of this “phenomenon”? A large number of homeschoolers do so because their children were not doing well in the public school due to their being identified with learning disabilities. Another group homeschools simply because it is a way for the parents and the school to handle a situation where a belligerent older child just won’t accept the rules at school any longer. The weak homeschool laws in many states, including mine, allow kids who would never graduate to avoid the last year or so of school altogether. No effort is made to educate them at home.
Both of these groups end up in the statistics and the first one is probably quite large, so I’m wondering what the source is for the statement that homeschooled children outperform those in public schools. (Again, I don’t doubt that they might, but what is the evidence?)
As for parents “loving the schools” because they “provide free childcare services” and that they don’t care about how their children perform academically, this is probably wrong.
True, when faced with a choice of sending the child to school and going back to earn a living, or staying at home another year, many parents decide to send their child to school. They never consider the option of homeschooling because they don’t feel qualified to do the teaching themselves, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t care. They make their decisions based on the choices offered them, and school choice is rarely one of those options. If it were, you would see some serious consideration of academics once again.
The vast majority of parents do want what’s best for their kids but pursuing academic excellence is not, unfortunately, one of the viable options available today for most of them.