I Want my 40 Grand for Homeschooling

So in my state (Minnesota) the State spends $10,685 per year, per kid, in the public school (as of July 2012).
The average homeschooling parent spends $500-$600 per year, per kid, for their homeschool costs.

Personally, my wife and I have never spent nearly that much to homeschool our 3 school age daughters, and I suspect the numbers for the homeschooled kids are inflated because so many are first year students. After all, homeschooling is growing seven times faster than public school enrollment, and that makes for a lot of first time homeschooling parents. Not to mention, the public schools themselves now have an online option for homeschooling which is free to the parents. For many, like us, we can reuse materials for the younger kids. So a $200 4th grade writing course isn't $200 for that 4th grader... because her little sister will use it too. You get the idea. In this way we have never spent more than $1,000 on homeschool supplies in a year, and this year, for a kindergartner, second, third, and fifth grader, we will spend around $750 for all 4. And we could have scrimped and spent less. So that is $15-$19 a week, very affordable. By the time our oldest is out of high school, the cost should go down dramatically because we should have most of the materials we need already.

So considering we will have 4 kids in school next year, that would cost the State of Minnesota $42,740 if we sent them to public school. Ouch! In a couple years, I will have 5 school agers, and the State would be paying $53,425 for them to go to school.

The cost for my kids... well let's see... lets get them a laptop and take them on a field trip to get the cost up to $600 per kid... really splurging on 'em. So next year I would be spending a total of $2,400 for extravagant homeschooling. Public school would need $42,740 to put them in a prison with bars and metal detectors and let them be bullied, teach them how to put a condom on a bananna, teach them homosexuality is just fine, and oh, yeah, besides all the moral problems, not teach them accademically as well as we could homeschooling them.

Same kids, same numbers and alphabet, same SAT, but the government spends $42,740 to teach them and I only need $2,400.


They spend 18 times as much to make it 18 times more likely they become:

-less literate,
-morally blind,
-dull,
-conformist,
-materialists
-whose last brush with the word 'logic' was from Spock in the recent Star Trek film.

No thanks. I will have smarter, holier, better adjusted, happier kids for 1/18th the cost by homeschooling them.

Oh, and I am waiting for my check in the mail for the $40,340 I saved the State of Minnesota by homeschooling. Or even just the check for $2,400 would be a nice gesture.

Still waiting...

(crickets chirping...)