Study sees no harm in home schooling

Report done for conservative-allied group says movement is now broadening beyond Christians with young children

By Alan J. Borsuk

The sparse amount of data available about home schooling in Wisconsin includes no evidence that the growing trend is harmful academically or socially, says a study by an educational consultant.

The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute study, written by Robert V. Luebke, an independent educational researcher from Middleton with a doctoral degree in educational administration, suggests that, on the contrary, the academic benefits of home schooling are becoming more accepted.

There is little question that home schooling is on the rise. The study says that the state began keeping count in 1985 of the number of children whom parents reported were being home schooled. The total at that time was 1,126. In 1998, the total was 18,712, an increase of 1,562%. It also is likely there are numerous students being home schooled without the state being notified.

If all the home schooled students were considered part of a single school system, it would be the sixth largest district in the state, Luebke said, although it would still represent less than 2% of all students in Wisconsin.

Luebke said that research "paints a profile of the typical home schooling family as religious, white and middle class, where the mother stays at home." In most instances, the mother is the main teacher, Luebke said.

In earlier years, home schooling largely involved families with strong Christian motivations, dealing with young children.

But Luebke said available data indicated that the movement had broadened to include more people who were motivated to keep their children out of school systems by more general dissatisfaction with the educational establishment, and that there were an increasing number of middle school and high school age students being home schooled.

Luebke also said that, even though the research is not extensive, it appears that home schooled children have active social and extracurricular lives. Lack of such things has often been raised as a concern by critics of home schooling, but Luebke said there is no research to support the claim.
Luebke said one big question about home schooling is what becomes of students after they leave high school. He said that while there were 881 home schooled students listed as high school seniors in the 1997-'98 school year, only 32 students entering the University of Wisconsin system in the fall of 1998 had been home schooled.

On the other hand, there is no evidence that home schooled kids aren't able to make it at the college level; in fact, five home schooled students from Wisconsin were named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Competition a year ago, he said.

Luebke, whose own children were home schooled at one time and are now in public school, suggested that "policy makers would do well to consider home schooling an attractive and effective alternative to traditional education."

The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute is a Thiensville-based private organization that funds studies and other commentary on state issues. It has often been associated with conservative political thought.