How do homeschoolers turn out?
- Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 10
- 1 min read
People who were homeschooled for three or more years are much less likely to earn a bachelor's degree or higher, and more likely to have an associate degree, according to a Cardus survey of homeschooled people. They earn less as adults.
However, long-term homeschoolers (eight years or more taught at home) reported the most optimism, gratitude, and life satisfaction, and were the least likely to “feel helpless dealing with life’s problems,” depressed or anxious, report Albert Cheng and Angela R. Watson.
Long-term homeschoolers also were more likely to be married, had the lowest divorce rate, and had more children, on average. Their household income may be lower because they're more likely to have one stay-at-home parent.
Only 17 percent of the adults surveyed had been homeschooled for all K-12 years.
Short-term homeschoolers (one to two years) resembled non-homeschoolers in most cases. Medium-term homeschoolers has been taught at home for three to seven years.
Not surprisingly, the number of years in homeschooling correlates with religious faith.
Studies controlled for factors such as gender, race, mother's education, family poverty, growing up with two biological parents, growing up in a religious household and urban or rural upbringing. However, there may be other unmeasured differences, such as attending an unsafe school or experiencing bullying.
USC's Understanding America Study (UAS) estimates that only 11 percent of people who were homeschooled were educated only at home, but otherwise tracks well with the Cardus survey, notes Jeff Murray. Many move between homeschool, traditional public school and private school.
Now compare incarceration rates or survey the US prison population and compare representation of homeschoolers versus conventionally schooled children.
If I am reading the study correctly, they surveyed 2,350 adults aged 24-39 who had graduated from high school (so no high school dropouts).
181 of these had been home schooled at least a bit, and 17% of the 181 were home schooled for all of K-12 (so 31 adults out of the 2,350 surveyed). 65 of the 181 were classified as having been long-term home schooled.
I find the conclusions plausible, but I'd be cautious about reading TOO much into a sample of only 31 people.
[I would also be interested in the MIX of 4-year college majors between the non-homeschooling and homeschooling populations. The study treats all 4-year degrees from all degree offering institutions identically. That is .…
Well, homeschoolers are far more likely to get a high school diploma. But having learned to learn, they are far less likely to need to waste years of their life in "higher ed". Over-credentialing interventionism of the last 90 years not withstanding. And increasingly, it is becoming apparent that a college degree is not indicative of a graduate actually have learned anything.
Anyone who has ever talked to a militant homeschooler would know this. They brag about their homeschool child working in the family business. I always point out that having a parent stay home to teach puts the economic costs of homeschooling on par with college prep private school. That means that any homeschool child that does not get admitted to a selective or highly selective university is wasting economic resources.