How Much Money Each State Saves Thanks to Homeschooling

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As many recognize, homeschooling has been booming in recent years and promises to keep growing. The most recent numbers from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) hail from 2012 and suggest that 1.8 million children are now educated at home.

Compared to public school students, studies suggest that homeschoolers perform up to 30 percentile points better on standardized tests, have higher college GPAs and completion rates, and may even be better adjusted socially. Judging from these numbers, it would seem that homeschooling definitely benefits the individual student.

But what about the nation as a whole? Are there any immediate benefits which homeschoolers offer to their communities?

One of the most obvious is the money each homeschool student saves his or her state. Based on state spending per student multiplied by the approximate number of homeschoolers in each state, the following statistics demonstrate how much savings homeschoolers are passing off to their fellow citizens each year:

1. Alabama $203.9 million
2. Alaska $67.5 million
3. Arizona $249.1 million
4. Arkansas $137.7 million
5. California $1.8 billion
6. Colorado $227.6 million
7. Connecticut $31 million
8. Delaware $36.4 million
9. D.C. $37.2 million
10. Florida $729.8 million
11. Georgia $468.1 million
12. Hawaii $75.1 million
13. Idaho $58.4 million
14. Illinois $798.6 million
15. Indiana $341.3 million
16. Iowa $157.3 million
17. Kansas $144.7 million
18. Kentucky $190.6 million
19. Louisiana $240.4 million
20. Maine $68.6 million
21. Maryland $381.6 million
22. Massachusetts $429.5 million
23. Michigan $510.5 million
24. Minnesota $297.3 million
25. Mississippi $123.3 million
26. Missouri $279.4 million
27. Montana $50.2 million
28. Nebraska $109.6 million
29. Nevada $113.8 million
30. New Hampshire $80.7 million
31. New Jersey $736.2 million
32. New Mexico $98.7 million
33. New York $1.7 billion
34. North Carolina $1 billion
35. North Dakota $40.3 million
36. Ohio $614.5 million
37. Oklahoma $149.5 million
38. Oregon $222.3 million
39. Pennsylvania $298.6 million
40. Rhode Island $64.8 million
41. South Carolina $214.8 million
42. South Dakota $37 million
43. Tennessee $262.4 million
44. Texas $1.2 billion
45. Utah $117.8 million
46. Vermont $43 million
47. Virginia $366.7 million
48. Washington $327.8 million
49. West Virginia $117.1 million
50. Wisconsin $209.7 million
51. Wyoming $44 million

It should be noted that because homeschool registration varies by state, these numbers are likely conservative, making the savings even more than recorded above. In fact, a recent report by the Pioneer Institute suggested that on a national scale, homeschoolers save taxpayers $22 billion every year.

Such savings should give us pause. Homeschooling parents pay taxes like everyone else, yet they also fork out a lot of money each year to pay for books and other equipment. Should some of this savings be passed on to them, or would such a process only invite more government control into individual homes?

Furthermore, if homeschooling produces such a good product for such a large monetary savings, doesn’t it seem like states would want to encourage more parents to pursue such an education option?

[Image Credit: Flickr-Alexandre Normand | CC BY SA 2.0]

This post How Much Money Each State Saves Thanks to Homeschooling was originally published on Intellectual Takeout by Annie Holmquist.

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