RESOLVED: Homeschooling is better than Public Schooling.

Thank you, DDDDaniel. Per the rules, in Round 3 I will rebut Pro's arguments from Round 2. I will rebut Pro's Round 3 arguments and defend my case in Round 4.1) AcademicPro did not cite any studies, but news articles and press releases. I cite the full studies below. In each case, the researchers caution against using the studies to argue that homeschooling is more effective academically:-The Cogan study [1] is based on a small, unrepresentative sample, which the author admonished "should not be considered inferential to the general population of undergraduate students in the US." Note that 70% of the sample was male. This is unsettling given that some number of fundamentalist homeschooling families keeping their adult female children out of college and living at home until marriage, to ensure they live continually under male authority. [2] Are these homeschooled women performing as well academically as the men who go to college?-While the "End of the American Dream" article outlines some appalling deficiencies in American public education, no evidence is presented that homeschoolers would perform any better in these surveys of general knowledge. Indeed, many homeschoolers rely on curricula produced by fundamentalist Christian institutions [3] which leave students entirely ignorant about the science of evolution and which contain ideologically-motivated factual distortions, particularly concerning the history of race and slavery. [4]-The HSLDA press release referenced two studies. The Rudner study cautions that "the reported achievement differences between groups do not control for background differences in the home school and general United States population and, more importantly, cannot be attributed to the type of school a child attends." [5] The Ray study, written by a prominent homeschooling advocate, contains the most robust available effort at obtaining a representative sample, but ultimately still relied on self-selection. The study acknowledged that "it was not possible... to confirm whether this sample is representative of the population of home-educated students." [6]2) SocialI won't address the sixteen studies cited in Pro's two sources one-by-one, but all suffer from similar sampling problems: Parents who isolate their children don't volunteer for study, just as parents who educationally neglect their children don't sign up for standardized testing. How many parents? Again, we don't know, because of the deregulated homeschooling regime obtained in most states by the movement. All we have are hundreds of stories from those who escaped abusive or neglectful situations. [7] [8]HARO provides resources for struggling homeschool alumni that should give the reader some sense of social difficulties alumni face. [9] Some can seem silly - "Find new music you like" - but have roots in an escape from the strictures of fundamentalism (where secular music is often prohibited). While it might amuse to think of homeschooling parents as, basically, the bad guy from Footloose, other entries on the list evoke darker realities:-Get emancipated-Find a sexual assault victim advocate-Prevent your parent(s) from stealing your financial identityOthers indicate unfamiliarity with basic life skills:-File your taxes-Find a doctor-Get a cell phone-Make a personal budgetStill others illustrate the social anxiety that survivors of homeschooling themselves feel:-Make new friends if you’re socially awkward-Understand body language-Communicate about sex with a partner-Understand consent in a romantic and/or sexual relationshipWe don't know how widespread these problems are. [7] But when these are the problems that homeschool alumni seek help for, we must conclude that homeschooling is utterly failing in the social development of some not-insignificant number of students - who fly under the radar, undetected, unstudied, unassisted.3. OriginPro tells a just-so story: How Factories Sent Kids to School to Become Followers. The sources are utterly inadequate to support this myth. The first is an unsourced post from a parenting blog; the second, a sample student paper about adult education. The reader should disregard.Pro's instinct is correct, however, that history is an instructive guide, and so I present a brief history of the modern homeschooling movement. While homeschooling is far from monolithic, the modern homeschooling movement was founded on a destructive, theocratic, totalitarian ideologyMeet R.J. Rushdoony: Dominionist, Reconstructionist, and father of modern American homeschooling. [10] Dominionism is a theocratic theology characterized by 1) Christian nationalism, 2) Christian religious supremacy, and 3) implementation of biblical law as the foundation for all government. [11] Dominionism is a "totalitarian form of religious power called a 'theonomy,' in which pluralistic democracy and religious tolerance are seen as a problem to be solved by godly men carrying out God's will." Rushdoony's particular vision of Dominionism is Christian Reconstructionism. Reconstructionist David Chilton describes it so: "The Christian goal for the world is the universal development of Biblical theocratic republics, in which every area of life is redeemed and placed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the rule of God's law." [11] Reconstructionists believe that all forms of government are answerable to God. The "family government" of a traditional nuclear family is the atomic unit of society; authority within the family rests with the father, who is subordinate to God. [11]Education was central to Rushdoony's goal to reconstructing America as a Christian government. He began to advocate for homeschooling in the 1960s, when the practice was almost unheard-of. [12] He spent much of the 1970s and 80s passionately advocating for homeschooling, and it was through his efforts - and those of his chief acolyte, Michael Farris of the HSLDA - that state governments became far more permissive of homeschooling. "Rushdoony understood that if he changed the way Christians educated their children, he could change the way they thought" [13] Largely through his efforts, homeschooling ballooned from 50,000 students in 1985 [12] to 1.5 million in 2007 [13].83% of homeschooling families say they do so for religious and moral reasons - academic concerns are secondary. [13] The goals of movement homeschoolers are not simply the education of their own children, but the destruction of public education as it is practiced in the United States today, with the ultimate goal of transforming the nation into a Christian theocracy. [13]Rushdoony's ideas are the DNA of modern homeschooling. Homeschooling is not benign - in its modern form, it is the spearpoint of a frightening ideology that should be opposed.[1] http://files.eric.ed.gov...[2] http://spiritualsoundingboard.com...[3] Isabel Lyman, The Homeschooling Revolution, 2000[4] Frances Patterson, Democracy and Intolerance, 2003[5] http://www.hslda.org...[6] http://nheri.org.... The "Progress Report" referenced in the press release, and subsequently cited by my opponent in R3, is based on this study.[7] http://hareachingout.wordpress.com...[8] http://www.responsiblehomeschooling.org...[9] http://hareachingout.wordpress.com...[10] http://www.publiceye.org...[11] http://www.publiceye.org...[12] http://homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com...[13] http://alumni.berkeley.edu...