State of the Union 2012: A Homeschool Response

This response was written by guest contributor Matt Bianco, a contributor to the Writers Circle for Classical Conversations, and local community director for a Challenge III program in North Carolina.

A Homeschool Response to the State of the Union
by Matt Bianco

In Tuesday’s State of the Union address by President Barack Obama, he predictably addressed education. What were his observations and what were his solutions?

1. He observed that students who walk away from their education are less likely to get a diploma. His solution: “So tonight, I call on every state to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn eighteen.” President Obama has called for compulsory education laws to be extended to age eighteen in all states.

2. He observed that the cost of college is the “most daunting challenge” for a graduate. His solution: “We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money. States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets.” President Obama has called on state governments to subsidize the tuition that the federal government can no longer afford to subsidize.

Homeschoolers should automatically be wary of the proposed compulsory education laws. Best-case scenario, it could simply mean more paperwork for homeschooling parents to prove they are still educating their children. Worst-case scenario, it could lead to state governments refusing to accept that homeschooling meets the compulsory education requirements satisfactorily. This may seem unlikely, but should anti-homeschooling legislators get an opportunity to write a new law about education, they will certainly be tempted to write in a line that makes homeschooling more difficult, if not illegal.

Homeschoolers may not be wary of the call to subsidize higher education, but they should be! When an institution is aware that there are additional dollars chasing their product or service, they will raise their prices. When colleges and universities know that students have additional funds for their tuition as a result of student loans, scholarships, grants, and tax credits, they too will raise their prices. Calling on the government to subsidize education is the very cause of college tuition being “the most daunting challenge” for graduates, not the solution to it!

In his conclusion, President Obama stated, “That’s why my education reform offers more competition and more control for schools and states.” With this rhetoric, homeschoolers are more inclined to agree. Homeschoolers want more competition in education, and we also want more control as local as possible. However, whereas President Obama offers more control to schools and states, we want to see more control offered to the most local level possible–the family.