[saraid216]

Except that the notion of homeschooling is hugely co-opted by cultists who brainwash their kids. It's hard to get a serious dialogue on homeschooling going when most people equate it to a stand-in for Bible study and avoiding science education.

[billswift]

I've heard this said often enough, but most of the homeschoolers I actually know or know of indirectly are pretty lefty or libertarian. Most Christian extremists go to little private schools which are scattered all over the place.

[jasonrr]

There is actual data to look at here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf

Desire to provide religious or moral instruction is at the TOP of the list of reasons people homeschool.

[Gormo]

...among those who answered the survey.

[r00fus]

This is a survey by the NHES, a government organization - do you think there is some reason for selection bias?

Here is the survey's remark on their estimation methodology:

"When applied to survey data, weights allow for the generation of national estimates from a sample of respondents. They also adjust for characteristics of the survey design, nonresponse, and noncoverage. However, biases may exist in the data if weighting procedures have not adequately adjusted for these issues. A large-scale bias study was conducted in conjunction with the 2007 data collection. Readers interested in the findings of the bias study, as well as detailed information on NHES survey methods, weighting, and response rates, can refer to the Data File User’s Manuals published online at http://nces.ed.gov/nhes ."

[Gormo]

I think that the fact that the survey was conducted by a government organization and that the targets of the survey were families who had decided not to participate in government-run education, for one reason or another, makes a certain selection bias seem likely.

I'd expect a measure of homeschooling families to want nothing to do with the federal department of education.

[vitno]

I was homeschooled in 7th and 8th grade. It was totally because my parents thought I wasn't getting a good enough education. I still had hebrew school on sunday(jewish), but religion never entered my curriculum at home. I had a much greater focus on science & tech. (I had a programming "class" taught by my dad where I programmed micro-controllers)

edit: (actually... It wasn't a heavier focus on science & tech... it was just more intense in general... I had a hefty literature portion (I read many Dickens books...) and some sweet art history books)

[Gormo]

I've no idea to what extent homeschooling has been co-opted by 'cultists', but I think it's a fair statement to say that families who engage in the practice do so out of some mistrust of the prevailing institutional model of education for one reason or another, and that it may be relatively likely that, for the same reasons, they're unwilling to allow their children's education to be the subject of some public 'dialogue'.