4 grandkids attend private school, 3 are in a charter school and only the oldest went to public school....wish the oldest could have gone to a charter school too.

Charter schools combine the best of both worlds.

Just import more illegal immigrants (ooops, children of undocumented workers).

Home schooled my 4 children until they reached High School. Would do it all over again, in fact I miss those days.

Had a retired public school 60´s liberal teacher inform me that we should not homeschool our son because it was not fair to the other children. Her comment was "they need children like him in the public schools to set a good example for the less fortunate children." I am not kidding. She wanted me to sacrifice his creativity, imagination, keen probing mind, and boundless potential on the altar of the "public good." But then looters of men´s minds always ask that we sacrifice our lives for the sake of the "incompetents."

"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Lots of Home School children in my area. They are head and shoulders above other children in friendliness, manners and intellectual curiosity. They show enthusiasm for activities in our church and drama groups at the YMCA. They run in races to support charities and show up at art exhibits, musical programs and anything good happening at the library. They are well rested and without insecurities. No wonder professional education unions are mad at Home Schooling. The kids turn out to be healthy, happy, smart and eager to learn.

I homeschool mine and send them to a Catholic high school when they reach freshman year. I´m currently schooling 4: my 13 yr old daughter, 11 yr old son, 8 yr old son and 5 yr old daughter. The 17 mos old learns by osmosis as he watches and listens to everything they are doing. He is now trying to count to 5 with his fingers. I have two teen boys in high school (freshman and senior) and my oldest 19 will be starting Texas Tech to finish his petroleum engineering degree-he also works at Walmart while he´s going to college to help pay for it.

My high school kids consistently get high praises from the teachers on how "mature", "respectful" and "above their peers both in independent thought, study ethics and behavior". The look on the teachers faces are priceless when I tell them they were homeschooled. Every single one of my children are 100% pro-life and conservative.

My oldest voted for the first time this election and went for Romney, then straight libertarian the rest of the way. They all play some sort of sport, active in our church, play an instrument. It´s a stark difference in the behavior of my public schooled family members and neighbors.

Home school, private school, religious school, charter school........parental involvement is absolutely required.

Read their books, textbooks, workbooks too.

And talk to them about what they are learning in school.

It´s up to us to make sure they are learning what is important in life.

Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes!! Our public schools have been hijacked by the NEA and a nationalized education program that now goes by "core standards". The local schools have no say anymore in what is taught. The curriculum must all be standardized (and bastardized and propagandized)

My daughter attended Catholic schools. Home schooling never would have worked for us - I could tell her that 2+2=4 and she would argue with me about it. I would have done it in a heart beat if I could have made it work. As it was, she was the only kid in the neighborhood who didn´t go to day care before and after school.

I live a few miles from Patrick Henry College which caters primarily to home schooled kids, and to the Home School Legal Defense Foundation. I used to teach a noontime karate class in the same town and had numerous home schooled kids who came to the class as their PE for the day. They were by far the most polite, respectful and achievement oriented kids I´ve ever known. They were a joy to teach.

PS: after banning guns, look for zippy to ban home schooling to keep his NEA contributors in his pocket and to continue indoctrinating our youth on the glories of Marxism.

I love Mr. Instapundit. And #6 - your story is PRECIOUS!!! God bless you! One nephew is in Christian private school and one is home-schooled. My mother now says she would go on welfare to keep from sending us to public school if she had it to do all over again.

Spoke to a well educated school teacher at a party during the Holidays.He had a phd in public policy( whatever that has to do with teaching kids the 3 R´s, etc?) I told him that I understood issue of the school voucher program, using public tax dollars for private use, etc. I asked why can´t the public schools at least allow the families to pick the public school they wanted for their children. The better schools would prosper and the poor schools would lose enrollment. He said parents are not smart enought to know which schools are better. Also, what would you do with the schools with dwindling enrollment? I said you fire the teachers and close the school. He said you can´t do that, it is not fair to those teachers. They need their jobs. Ite!