Well now this is interesting:
(from this article)
“As far as cost saving measures, homeschooling beats the public school programs hands-down. The average per-pupil allocation to the schools is about $8000 per year.Community College at $76 per credit hour comes to $2736 per year for 18 hours each semester. The average homeschool family spends $500 to $600 per student per year on curriculum. The counties are still getting all the property tax money from homeschoolers, which doesn’t get disbursed out of the county coffers back to the schools. In addition to all of this, homeschool parents are bearing the costs of curriculum, school supplies, field trips, extra-curricular activities, and the dual-credit community college tuition. These expenses help stimulate the economy, rather than draining funds from the tax revenues which are funneled into the schools.”
UPDATE: Here’s more updated info on money spent on students in public schools.
I find the numbers they quote for what we homeschoolers spend per year a little high for me actually…I have not totaled what we’ve spent, but I cannot see that we’ve spent anywhere close to $500/year PER STUDENT. Maybe total for both…but then, that number will fluctuate for us yearly…because I usually buy things that are good for both kids (younger will use later when he’s that age)…and I tend to buy things that last longer than one year. AND I am able to get a lot of things free or hand-me-down!
I also find the fact that we still pay the taxes for our kids to attend public school but yet our kids don’t attend…seriously infuriating. I have heard about the possibility of tax breaks for homeschoolers but don’t see it happening. I think we absolutely deserve to have a tax break…at least SOMETHING. Sheesh, they are getting $8000 per student, why can’t we at least get $1000 per student back to spend on homeschooling supplies! That would make a HUGE difference in our lives! Hell, I would even be ok if they allocated it to a special account so that it can only be used on education-related supplies! Like how the food stamps program have their cards set up to only use for food (I assume…I don’t know exactly how that works)…Why can’t we, as homeschoolers get back some of those tax dollars to use specifically for our kids’ education?? Good heavens, wouldn’t THAT be awesome???