Giving Up on Government

This chapter looks at homeschooling parents’ trust in government by examining how parents view public schools as an extension of the state, complete with political agendas that parents often dislike—though given the political diversity of the parents interviewed, the substance of their critiques of the political agendas present in schools varied. Additionally, parents critiqued the inefficiency of the state in running public schools, with some critiquing the overall lack of funding for education and others criticizing what they see as poor prioritization of what that funding goes to. Parents also expressed a profound disappointment with federal education reforms, using these as an example of general government incompetence. In short, even when their assessment of what children needed from education varied, there was a common sentiment among these parents that the government would not, or could not, provide that education.