The simple answer to education problems

Update: I have slightly altered my view since writing this post. I do not believe he Federal Government should fund homeschooling via vouchers. Recently, a bill was proposed for a program very similar to the idea given in this blog post. However, after learning HSLDA's stance on the bill, I have decided that government funding leads to government control, and thus the government should not give vouchers to homeschooling parents.
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American public schools are failing. Although public schools spend an average of $11,732 on each student per year. America ranks 29th on a list of nations’ schools. Countries in Asia are excelling past the US. About 7000 students drop out of US schools each day, a total of 1.2 million per year!

A nation's future depends on the ability of the next generation to succeed. However, here is a simple solution to this problem: if the government were to give vouchers to parents, which they must use to pay for the their children’s schooling, everyone would benefit.

This is because, in contrast to the public school system, private education is succeeding. According to Harvard University, private schools outperform public schools in 11 of 12 cases. This makes sense, because private schools are one manifestation of the free market, in which private organizations and individuals have to compete in order to succeed, and thus only the best survives.

Private schools cost, on average, $9,388 a year, although the high cost of secular private schools increases this amount compared to religious schools. Thus, if the government gave vouchers to parents to use at any school, public or private, it would allow students to receive a superior education.

And there is an even better option: Homeschooling. Homeschooling is excelling as well, even more so: According to Ph.D Brian Ray, home-schooled students out-perform public school student by 15-30 percentage points, on average. They also score higher on the SAT. Homeschoolers also spend an average of $600 pers student, per year, on schooling. Overall, homeschoolers save the pubic schools 27 billion dollars per year!

Thus, if the the government sent $1000 to every homeschool parent for the education of their child, it would cover the cost of the education, while costing only 1/11th of what it would cost to educate them in a public school.

​Vouchers would be win for all parties: the government, the parents, and, most importantly, the students.