The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice released the results of a survey of Nebraskans yesterday that "more than eight of ten likely voters in Nebraska would send their children to private schools, charter schools, virtual schools or educate their children in a home school setting if they could". I haven't yet had the opportunity to read the full study, but I did check out the wording of the question that generated the above stat. That question read: "If it was your decision and you could select any type of school, what type of school would you select in order to obtain the best education for your child?" It's not a perfect question -- it assumes a "school" is necessary, for example, which may bias responses away from certain non-traditional alternatives -- but it's not as biased as I thought it might be given the foundation's leanings.
I bring up the study for two reasons. First, I bring it up because the 80% figure seems surprisingly high to me. I thought there was more love for public schools in Nebraska than that. Sure, Nebraskans don't think our public schools are perfect, but we don't think anything is perfect. Except Tom Osborne.
And second I bring it up because The Missus and I are fairly actively pondering home schooling for Robbie. He has already begun a home school preschool program with a couple friends and we plan to build from there to see how things go. I won't go into the reasons for our decision here -- that's a series of blog posts all its own -- but I will say that my experience in a teacher training program and The Missus's experience as a teacher in a public school played a significant role. Since beginning to explore the ins and outs of home schooling, I have been surprised by how many people express understanding with our reasons but still think we're nuts. I shouldn't have been surprised; it wasn't long ago that I thought home schoolers were nuts.
Does anything about the study surprise you or jump out at you, Lincolnites?
Hat tip: 10/11
Comments
See what your friends and neighbors have to say about this.
Yeah, those numbers are a bit surprising but I’m sure most people are under the assumption (maybe correctly, I really don’t know) that a private school is a better school.
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