On August 22, 2012, the Fox News program "The Five", as reported by Juan Williams, revealed (as I understood Mr. Williams to say) that the national average cost a family spends for public school "back-to-school" supplies per child, per year is $683. Wow! That doesn't even include the curriculum. On the other hand, the average cost a typical homeschooling family spends per child, per year is approximately $200 LESS - and that lower cost INCLUDES the curriculum!
On top of the "back-to-school" costs that the families of public school kids must pay in order to receive a "free" education for their children, the government spends $10,000 (or more) per child, per year of taxpayer money and still manages to provide a poor quality education to our children.
Studies conducted in recent years by the National Assessment of Education Progress have shown that two-thirds of 4th grade children in the U.S.A. cannot read at a proficient level; three-fourths of them cannot write well; and four-fifths don't do well in math. (source of my information: Bringing Up Boys by Dr. James Dobson, licensed psychologist and family counselor)
A former Secretary of Education, Dr. Bill Bennett who holds a Ph.D from the University of Texas and a law degree from Harvard said this, "In the third grade, in math and science, our children score near the top compared to third graders in other industrialized nations. In the eighth grade, they score in the middle. In the twelfth grade, they score at the bottom. In short, the longer you stay in school in America, the dumber you get, relative to kids in other countries." (from the book: Bringing Up Boys; emphasis mine) Dr. Bennett pointed out that standardized test scores reveal that homeschoolers out rank public schoolers by 37 points! The test scores of kids who attend public school average at the 50th percentile level, while the scores of homeschoolers average at the 87th percentile! Dr. Bennett went on to say that "It (the public school system of education) is a dumbing-down process...There is no competition in the system. There's very little accountability in the system." Could 'tenure' be one of the reasons for that? Think about it!
Then there is the bullying! A study sponsored by the Kaiser Foundation showed that 74% of kids aged 8 to 11 years, and 86% of teens reported being bullied or teased by their peers; and one out of every five children are actually frightened in the classroom. ( - Bringing Up Boys )
Homeschooling is more economical for the family than public school, and it saves taxpayers alot of money. Plus, homeschooling provides children with a better education (and much better social skills) than the public schools. So, parents, if your child is struggling in school, has become rebellious, or is being bullied and has developed fears; try homeschooling! You just might end up becoming pleasantly surprised at the positive effect upon your child.
Awesome post! I was surprised when I heard how much parents are paying just on school supplies. We buy them too, but it never costs that much. Of course, we don't need the backpacks and gym shoes that we won't see for a year and three boxes of tissues per student to equip the school for flu season. Paper, pens, pencils, glue, craft stuff, maybe notebooks and folders. Just the basics.
ReplyDeleteI am sure the "back-to-school" costs probably included other items that the teachers or school required throughout the year, not just at the beginning. This was a national average that was reported, so there were some parents who didn't pay as much, and others that paid even more. Stuff is cheaper in small towns than in the major cities, for example. Thanks for responding to my post!
ReplyDelete