Romney votes "aye" on more homeschooling

Mitt Romney recently proposed a tax break for parents that homeschool their children, which, as this article points out, takes another step toward eroding our public school system.

Though I'm not sure how much effect this would have — I'd wager that sending kids to private school over public school is a more likely option than homeschooling — this is a personal choice these parents are making. Maybe the argument goes that the parents have to buy books and spend their time teaching their children, but there is free education (or rather, manditorily tax-paid education) already available.

The piece is relatively inflammatory, and it's not difficult to see where the author's sensibilities lie, mentioning where education falls in an increasingly free-market agenda:

“That there are other non-market considerations in educating our children, such as creating community, bridging races and classes, or inculcating American values, is irrelevant to the GOP and its amen corner: test scores are the only good in the market for education.”

However, I don't see where his argument is that valid, as it seems to me that homeschooled children would be less adaptable to the working world, as they'd be mostly sheltered from the cultural interaction he mentions in the above quote.

I'm up in the air about this one: Parents should have the right to homeschool their children, and therefore, should they have to pay taxes for the schools they're not using? At the same time, this could be abused for tax break purposes, and I'm way too supportive of the social benefits public schools provide to be in support of something that could be a negative educational experience for many kids.

I'm not really sure what I think would happen here, so I'd like to open the floor on this one: Where do y'all stand on this?


In other Romney news, he’s scheduled to give his big speech on Mormonism this Thursday. Surely I will have an update for you on Friday.